A little closer to finding what became Moses Schönfinkel (2021)

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2021/03/a-little-closer-to-finding-what-became-of-moses-schonfinkel-inventor-of-combinators/

by RafelMri • 2 years ago

72 15 2 years ago

writings.stephenwolfram.com

GoodUser77• 2 years ago

Good story and analysis

max_• 2 years ago

Anyone know of any good introductory resources on combinators? Stephen Wolfram's book seems too advanced for me.

robinhouston• 2 years ago

That depends rather on your background. I found Schönfinkel's original paper to be very accessible. Perhaps you will too, if you know a little old-fashioned logic.

http://sshieh.web.wesleyan.edu/wescourses/2013f/388/e-texts/...

eduhetxub• 2 years ago

Quite frankly, the Wikipedia page should tell anyone everything they could want to know (for starters).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SKI_combinator_calculus

QuesnayJr• 2 years ago

I took your advice, and you're right, it is very readable. Seeing it in its original context also helps me understand why a logician would want to invent it.

denotational• 2 years ago

I read Lambda-Calculus and Combinators: An Introduction by J Roger Hindley as an undergraduate and found it was very accessible.

gonzus• 2 years ago

I would highly recommend To Mock a Mockingbird by Raymond Smullyan. It will also introduce you (if you are not already aware) to the wonderful world of Smullyan's books.

zellyn• 2 years ago

I would start with lambda calculus. If you pick the right intro video, they'll stray into combinators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VQ382QG-y4 is very good.

thriftwy• 2 years ago

https://clck.ru/38WW9M This is where you are supposed to search Soviet WWII personnel and I guess that some of these documents come from here.

https://clck.ru/38WWAQ However, this documents lists a different address for Grigorii Schonfinkel! "Садовая-Триумфальная, д. 2 кв. 12" (Sadovaya-Triumphalnaya 2, apt. 12)

What's interesting about it that it is usually addressed as "Тверская 30". Maybe not this building after all? Or there was a reason why it was addressed that way.

https://retromap.ru/1319377_55.769246,37.605020 - Looks like the address actually existed back then, and wasn't an alias of Tverskaya 30.

myth_drannon• 2 years ago

Yes, looks like Grigory's WWII documents came from pamyat-naroda

Also Yandex Archive started scanning/transcribing documents (even handwritten! powered by TrOCR model I guess?). I found there more documents on Grigori and left comments on the article itself.

jekude• 2 years ago

I recently attempted to make a reference implementation and walkthrough of Schönfinkel's original paper [1]. I found the English translation (by Stefan Bauer-Mengelberg) to be quite readable, highly recommend!

[1] https://github.com/planetlambert/combinator

dark-star2• 2 years ago

I vividly remember our teacher at university explaining "currying" in Lambda calculus and afterwards consistenly calling it "Schönfinkeln", which I think only works in German but sounds much more beautiful than "currying" :-D

awesomelvin• 2 years ago

Ha, my German professor did that too (Tübingen!). Also, I've heard the English equivalent "Schönfinkeling" sometimes.

dark-star2• 2 years ago

Indeed, Mike Sperber and Volker Klaeren in Tübingen :) What a small world it is

KingOfCoders• 2 years ago

I find it amazing how often in these kind of stories Goettingen and Hilbert come up in that time frame.

A little closer to finding what became Moses Schönfinkel (2021)

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