How to derive Y-Combinator in Scheme?
Some time back I finished an amazing book called “Little Schemer”. It is a very short book but it has the most profound effect on me when it comes to programming.
The book is presented in a question/answer approach. It starts from the basics and slowly gears up to concepts like Y-Combinator.
Honestly, I had to go back and forth on understanding the Y-Combinator derivation but I really had an “Aha” moment when I finally got it. After reading up this book, I also read and understood Lambda Calculus e.g. the idea of using functions to represent arithmetic operations is really cool (Church numerals).
So after reading the “Little Schemer”, I set out on deriving Y-Combinator in Scheme and I made a PDF which is available here. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to let me know corrections or comments.
