lam

A minimal lambda calculus normalizer.

Install

npm i -g lambda-calculus

The package installs lam, lam-hs, and lam-ts. When ghc is available during install, lam uses the Haskell backend. Without ghc, lam falls back to lam-ts.

Usage

lam <file.lam> [args...] [-s] [--to-bin] [--from-bin] [--affine]

• Extra arguments are applied to the last definition before normalizing.
• -s shows stats (beta reductions, time, performance).
• --to-bin encodes a book as a binary string.
• --from-bin decodes a binary string (or .bin file) back to a book.
• --affine checks that all definitions use each variable at most once.

Syntax

A .lam file is a book of top-level @-definitions. Definitions may reference each other, including themselves (recursion). f(x, y, z) desugars to (((f x) y) z). The last definition is the entry point.

Output always uses canonical names (a, b, c, ...) based on lambda depth, so alpha-equivalent terms are string-equal.

Examples

Church numerals — mul(2, 3) = 6:

@zero  = λf.λx.x
@succ  = λn.λf.λx.f(n(f, x))
@mul   = λm.λn.λf.m(n(f))
@two   = @succ(@succ(@zero))
@three = @succ(@two)
@main  = @mul(@two, @three)

$ lam exs/cnats.lam
λa.λb.a(a(a(a(a(a(b))))))

$ lam exs/cnats.lam -s
λa.λb.a(a(a(a(a(a(b))))))
- beta: 31
- time: 0.000 seconds
- perf: 741769 betas/s

External arguments — apply the last def to extra terms:

$ lam '@add = λm.λn.λf.λx.m(f, n(f, x))
@main = @add' "λf.λx.f(f(x))" "λf.λx.f(f(f(x)))"
λa.λb.a(a(a(a(a(b)))))

Affinity check:

$ lam exs/snat.lam --affine
✓ all definitions are affine

$ lam exs/cnats.lam --affine
✗ @succ: λb used 2 times
✗ @add: λc used 2 times

Binary encoding

Books and terms have a compact binary representation:

Book ::= Defs Term^Defs
Defs ::= 1 Defs | 0    (unary definition count)
Term ::= 10 Nat        (Var)
       | 11 Global     (Ref)
       | 00 Term       (Lam)
       | 01 Term Term  (App)
Nat  ::= 1 Nat | 0     (unary natural)

A Var name is a de Bruijn index (0 = innermost lambda). A Ref name is a fixed-width global top-level definition index. The width is the minimum needed for the definition count: ceil(log2(max(defs, 1))) bits. This allows mutual top-level recursion and forward references.

The round-trip is exact: to_bin(from_bin(bits)) == bits.

$ lam exs/cnats.lam --to-bin
11111110000010000000001101001011011010101000...

$ lam --from-bin "$(lam exs/cnats.lam --to-bin)"
@a = λa.λb.b
@b = λa.λb.λc.b(a(b)(c))
@c = λa.λb.λc.λd.a(c)(b(c)(d))
@d = λa.λb.λc.a(b(c))
@e = @b(@b(@a))
@f = @b(@e)
@g = @d(@e)(@f)