Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Expedited Broda-Damas Bracket Abstraction, Martin W. Bunder

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A bracket abstraction algorithm is a means of translating λ-terms into combinators. Broda and Damas, in [1], introduce a new, rather natural set of combinators and a new form of bracket abstraction which introduces at most one combinator for each λ-abstraction. This leads to particularly compact combinatory terms. A disadvantage of their abstraction process is that it includes the whole Schonfinkel [4] algorithm plus two mappings which convert the Schonfinkel abstract into the new abstract. This paper shows how the new abstraction can be done more directly, in fact, using only 2n - 1 algorithm steps if there are n …