Re: [stack] What does "concatenative" actually mean?

On Mar 6, 2009, at 8:21 PM, John Nowak wrote:

> Claiming that quotation is "equivalent" to a lambda abstraction
> doesn't make a whole lot of sense with this understanding. The only
> thing that they have in common is that they're both used to create new
> functions.

Let me clarify: Quotation is just a higher order function. When you  
apply it to a function, you get a new function. This is a very simple  
and straightforward operation.

Lambda abstractions are not functions; they're much much complicated.  
It's true that lambda expressions *evaluate* to functions, and that's  
where the confusion comes in. The way they create that new function  
however is not at all equivalent to what quotation is doing.

- John