Hi,
I am trying to learn about combinators and I am having trouble understand the example given at (Y overriding self-application). I think I am beginning to grasp the concept but I am still far from understanding.
I would like to translate the following code to Python:
(define (U f) (f f))
(define (fib-nr f)
(lambda (n)
(if (< n 2) 1 (+ ((f f) (- n 1)) ((f f) (- n 2))))))
# Usage:
((U fib-nr) 35) ;==> 14930352
I tried a 'literal' translation by writing:
U = lambda u: u(u)
def fibnr(f):
return lambda n: 1 if (n<2) else (f (f (n-1))) + (f (f (n-2)))
But this doesnt work (I think it has to do with the order the functions are evaluated inside the lambda).
So I tried to use function composition as:
# http://code.activestate.com/recipes/52902-function-composition/
class compose:
'''compose functions. compose(f,g,x...)(y...) = f(g(y...),x...))'''
def __init__(self, f, g, *args, **kwargs):
self.f = f
self.g = g
self.pending = args[:]
self.kwargs = kwargs.copy()
def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
return self.f(self.g(*args, **kwargs), *self.pending, **self.kwargs)
U = lambda u: compose(u, u)
def fibnr(f):
ff = compose(f, f)
return lambda n: 1 if (n<2) else (ff (n-1)) + (ff (n-2))
But still didn't work, when calling my last snippet of code I get a lambda back:
>>> U(fibnr)(35)
<function <lambda> at 0x01A1B6B0>
So, is it possible to write a 'literal' translation of the given example in Python? How could I do it?