Show HN: Visual Lambda Calculus – a thesis project (2008) revived for the web (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

49 pointsbntr26d ago9 comments

Originally built as my master's thesis in 2008, Visual Lambda is a graphical environment where lambda terms are manipulated as draggable 2D structures ("Bubble Notation"), and beta-reduction is smoothly animated.

I recently revived and cleaned up the project and published it as an interactive web version: https://bntre.github.io/visual-lambda/

GitHub repo: https://github.com/bntre/visual-lambda

It also includes a small "Lambda Puzzles" challenge, where you try to extract a hidden free variable (a golden coin) by constructing the right term: https://github.com/bntre/visual-lambda#puzzles

9 comments

bntrOP26d ago

For comparison: factorial(3) visualized in two different notations.

John Tromp's Lambda Diagrams (via 2swap): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcVA8Nj6HEo&t=1346s

Bubble Notation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRgu8S3Pnb8

discarded102323d ago

Here's another from a long time ago: https://dkeenan.com/Lambda/

bntrOP23d ago

I like this catalog: https://github.com/prathyvsh/lambda-calculus-visualizations

And it seems that John Tromp's diagrams originate from David C. Keenan's Mockingbird (1996),

and Bubble Notation comes from Wayne Citrin's Visual Expressions (1995)

1 more reply

the_cat_kittles23d ago

2swap has some incredible videos

recognity23d ago

Really cool approach. The "Ollama for classical ML" framing makes it instantly clear what this does.

I've been building CLI-first tools myself and the pattern of wrapping complex workflows into simple terminal commands is underrated. Most devs I know would rather type one command than spin up a Jupyter notebook for a quick prediction.

Curious about the model format — do you plan to support a registry where people can publish pre-trained models, like Ollama's library? That would be the killer feature for adoption.

bntrOP23d ago

Seems like it went to the wrong post.

bntrOP24d ago

You can also construct your own puzzles and share them via URL.

Example: https://bntre.github.io/visual-lambda/#workspace=H4sIAAAAAAA...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

Show HN: Visual Lambda Calculus – a thesis project (2008) revived for the web (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

49 pointsbntr26d ago9 comments

I recently revived and cleaned up the project and published it as an interactive web version: https://bntre.github.io/visual-lambda/

GitHub repo: https://github.com/bntre/visual-lambda

It also includes a small "Lambda Puzzles" challenge, where you try to extract a hidden free variable (a golden coin) by constructing the right term: https://github.com/bntre/visual-lambda#puzzles

9 comments

bntrOP26d ago

For comparison: factorial(3) visualized in two different notations.

John Tromp's Lambda Diagrams (via 2swap): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcVA8Nj6HEo&t=1346s

Bubble Notation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRgu8S3Pnb8

discarded102323d ago

Here's another from a long time ago: https://dkeenan.com/Lambda/

bntrOP23d ago

I like this catalog: https://github.com/prathyvsh/lambda-calculus-visualizations

And it seems that John Tromp's diagrams originate from David C. Keenan's Mockingbird (1996),

and Bubble Notation comes from Wayne Citrin's Visual Expressions (1995)

1 more reply

the_cat_kittles23d ago

2swap has some incredible videos

recognity23d ago

Really cool approach. The "Ollama for classical ML" framing makes it instantly clear what this does.

Curious about the model format — do you plan to support a registry where people can publish pre-trained models, like Ollama's library? That would be the killer feature for adoption.

bntrOP23d ago

Seems like it went to the wrong post.

bntrOP24d ago

You can also construct your own puzzles and share them via URL.

Example: https://bntre.github.io/visual-lambda/#workspace=H4sIAAAAAAA...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse