GLOSSARY
- alpha
- The name of the Greek letter \(\alpha\) (lowercase) or
\(A\) (uppercase), corresponding to the letter "a".
- binding occurrence
- A binding occurrence is the place in a program where a variable is
bound to its name (or identifier). In modern programming languages,
a binding occurrence is the same as a declaration of the variable.
In lambda calculus, a binding occurrence for, say, the variable
\(x\), is any sub-expression equal to \(\lambda x.\)
- bnf grammar
- A BNF grammar is...
- bound
- In a lambda expression, a variable occurrence is bound or
occurs bound if it belongs to the scope of a binding occurrence
of that variable.
- free
- In a lambda expression, a variable occurrence is free or
occurs free if it is not bound in that expression.
- function abstraction
- In lambda calculus, a function abstraction (or lambda
abstraction) is synonymous with a function definition that
contains the name of the formal parameter and the body of the
function.
- lambda
- The name of the Greek letter \(\lambda\) (lowercase) or
\(\Lambda\) (uppercase), corresponding to the letter "L".
- lambda abstraction
- Synonym for function abstraction.
- scope
- Abbreviation for variable scope
- variable capture
- A free variable occurrence is captured when it becomes bound following
the renaming of some other variable occurrence.
- variable scope
- The scope of a variable declaration (or binding occurrence) in a
program is the collection of all parts of the program (that is,
the lines of code) in which this variable is accessible via
its name or identifier.
