NYC LOCAL: Tuesday 9 September 2003 Lisp NYC: Anton Stratten on the Lambda Calculus

[secretary]

Tuesday 9 September 2003 on the Island of the Manahattoes, Anton Stratten
will present to Lisp NYC the lambda calculus.

Alonzo Church discovered the lambda calculus in the 1930s in the course of
work on the foundations of mathematics.  The lambda calculus is a theory of
the operations of "substitution", called in the literature "abstraction",
and "function application".  Starting from an infinite supply of
"variables", one may build up a large and complicated set of "expressions"
by applying "substitutions" and "function applications" at whim.  The set
of expressions obeys a few salient and simple laws.  This structure of
expressions with their two operations of substitution and application is
"the lambda calculus".


Here are a few paragraphs by Gian-Carlo Rota on Alonzo Church:

http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/finding_aids/mathoral/pmcxrota.htm

Here is the first edition of Henk Barendregt's standard work:

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~cebrown/notes/barendregt.html

And here is Professor Barendregt's page:

http://www.cs.kun.nl/~henk


Official Lisp NYC announcement and some correspondence below.



Upcoming NYC Lisp Outreach Classes, Campaigns, and Gatherings:

 Kenny Tilton will teach a class in Common Lisp.  Kenny is not only a
 master hacker, he is a canny teacher, and I unreservedly recommend this
 class to all who wish to understand Lisp.  See Kenny's invitation below.


 RoboCup Struggle Continues!  To find out what RoboCup is and what
 Lisp NYC is doing, go to
 
 http://www.lispnyc.org


 The International Lisp Conference 2003 will meet in New York City at the
 New Yorker Hotel.  Raymond de Lacaze of Lisp NYC is the organizer of this
 unusual and important event.  John McCarthy, author of Lisp, will address
 the conference.
 
 http://www.international-lisp-conference.org
 http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc
 

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org



<blockquote
  what="official Lisp NYC notice"
  edits="some headers suppressed">

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Lisp] [ANNC] Lisp NYC September meeting, featuring Anton on
the Lambda Calculus
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 17:36:59 -0400
From: Kenny Tilton <ktilton@nyc.rr.com>
To: "'lisp@lispnyc.org'" <lisp@lispnyc.org>
Newsgroups: 
comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.prolog,comp.lang.functional

Boy do we have a good one this month. Gonna have a white board and
everything, and you'll even be able to hear because we have arranged a
new location for this special occasion.

Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2003
Time: 7PM
Place: (Kenny's apt) 171 West 73rd St, Apt 4, NYC 10023
Hint: buzzers unlabeled; you'll need to remember "4".
Phone: 212-724-7410 or 646-269-1077
Directions: Just east of Asterdam/Broadway, three blocks south of Time
Out, the usual venue. Take the 1,2,3, or 9 to 72nd st, use the 79th/Boat
Basin exit off the West Side Highway.
Refreshments: BYOB

Topic: The Lambda Calculus
Speaker: Anton van Straaten

Anton is a consultant and software developer with a strong interest in
the design and development of programming languages.  He has developed
award-winning language products and tools, such as "Class(y)", which
added full object-oriented language capabilities to the Clipper database
language, complete with multiple inheritance and a meta-object protocol.
   Anton's research during this development led him to study the formal
foundations of programming languages, including the lambda calculus,
type theory, and denotational semantics.  Anton considers these subjects
to have much greater relevance to practical programming than is commonly
realized, and enjoys sharing his perspective.

His Web site is: http://www.appsolutions.com/anton/lang.html

We'll cruise out afterwards to close the usual bars. <g>

-- 

   kenny tilton
   clinisys, inc
   http://www.tilton-technology.com/
   ---------------------------------------------------------------
"Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from
Sandy Koufax and I got out of a rundown against the Mets."
                                                   -- Bob Uecker

_______________________________________________
Lisp mailing list
Lisp@lispnyc.org
http://www.lispnyc.org/mailman/listinfo/lisp

</blockquote>

<blockquote
  what="reply to above from Anton Stratten"
  edits="some headers suppressed">

From: "Anton van Straaten" <anton@appsolutions.com>
Newsgroups: 
comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.prolog,comp.lang.functional
References: <3F5901FB.8050402@nyc.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [ANNC] Lisp NYC September meeting, featuring Anton on the Lambda 
Calculus
Message-ID: <MJ76b.921$BG6.377@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 22:02:20 GMT

Kenny Tilton wrote:
> Boy do we have a good one this month. Gonna have a white board and
> everything, and you'll even be able to hear because we have arranged a
> new location for this special occasion.
>
> Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2003
> Time: 7PM
> Place: (Kenny's apt) 171 West 73rd St, Apt 4, NYC 10023
> Hint: buzzers unlabeled; you'll need to remember "4".
> Phone: 212-724-7410 or 646-269-1077
> Directions: Just east of Asterdam/Broadway, three blocks south of Time
> Out, the usual venue. Take the 1,2,3, or 9 to 72nd st, use the 79th/Boat
> Basin exit off the West Side Highway.
> Refreshments: BYOB
>
> Topic: The Lambda Calculus
> Speaker: Anton van Straaten

Just to expand on this a little, the full description of the topic is:

   "Lambda calculus and its historical & technical connection to Lisp."

Since this is for Lisp NYC, the talk will include small illustrative
examples in Common Lisp.  However, anyone with a programming background
should have no difficulty following along.

Anton

</blockquote>



<blockquote
  what="Heow Eide-Goodman quotes Kenny Tilton's invitation"
  edits="some headers suppressed">

Date: 03 Sep 2003 19:27:34 -0400
From: Heow Eide-Goodman <lists@alphageeksinc.com>
Reply-To: NYLUG discussion list <nylug-talk@nylug.org>
To: NYLUG discussion list <nylug-talk@nylug.org>
Subject: [nylug-talk] Learning Lisp with Kenny!  FREE Lisp Classes

Kenny Tilton, Lisp developer extraordinaire is offering FREE LISP
CLASSES!

Learn up-close, all about one of the most powerful languages by a
long-time convert who has not once regretted his choice of technologies.


Per "Hella-Sweet" Kenny:

> One or two nights a week. BYO computer or use one of mine.
> BYO code to work on, or we can work thru the lisp text of
> your choice. (But do snag one, or find something on-line
> you want to follow.)

> btw, don't be shy. I enjoy teaching and am accustomed to
> helping folks at different levels of experience. Anyone
> prepared to make the effort will have a good time.
> Peer-tutoring is cool, so you can also help each other, and
> other strong lispniks are welcome to drop in.

> If you are interested, please let me know which evening(s)
> are best for you. (Tuesdays seem to be taken already.)
> email: ktilton at nyc.rr.com

> The location will be: 171 West 73rd St, NYC 10023, just
> east of Amsterdam Ave.


LispNYC.org is also gearing up for the Modern Software Technology
Conference, aka the  International Lisp Conference
(http://www.international-lisp-conference.org) right here in New York
City where we will be competing in the Robocup Simulation League
Competition.  There's plenty of fun things to do, including an entry
which is essentially "coding robots for newbies".

...and yes, you CAN do it all with Free Software as there will be
Knoppix-based Lisp Development CDs available for all interested.

- Heow

_______________________________________________
The nylug-talk mailing list is at nylug-talk@nylug.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe: http://www.nylug.org/mailman/listinfo/nylug-talk

</blockquote>