Re: Self-awareness of functions?

[Dirk Laurie <dpl@...>]

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 12:48:06PM +0200, Drake Wilson wrote:
> Quoth Dirk Laurie <dpl@sun.ac.za>, on 2010-12-29 12:19:14 +0200:
> > 6. Unless one can find a way to mimic them by some sort of anonymous
> >     recursive function constructor.
> 
> And the canonical anonymous recursive function constructor _is in fact
> the Y combinator_, which:
> requires zero changes to the syntax and zero screwy parsing or textual
> substitutions in code or environment munging or anything like that,
> and does not require naming the target function in any way other than
> inside its own body (which all your purported examples do by reserving
> a word instead).
> 
> You _have_ your anonymous recursive function constructor.  I just gave
> it to you, and so did someone else.  Now, what's wrong with it?
> 
Nothing wrong with it, except that for some reason my inbox did not
yet show these two posts when my corns started aching.  In fact, even
though I can read some replies to my own ill-humoured post, that post
itself has also not yet appeared in my inbox.

Thanks, Drake and Wim, for the suggestion.

Dirk