Aside from the zero/one thing, if I'm understanding this right, Nock is based on... | Hacker News

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jdpage on Nov 9, 2014 | parent | context | favorite | on: Urbit: a personal cloud computer

Aside from the zero/one thing, if I'm understanding this right, Nock is based on the SKI combinator calculus, where the combinators are

S: λxyz.xz(yz)

K: λxy.x

I: λx.x

From there, you can express anything from the lambda calculus, and vice-versa. So I think it's reasonable to say that Nock is just a machine-friendly way of expressing the lambda calculus.

urbit on Nov 9, 2014 | [–]

I wouldn't say it's based on SKI - just relatively similar. There are a lot of ways to skin this cat.

SKI is obviously a lot simpler mathematically, but I wouldn't want to try to use it as a compiler target...

jacquesm on Nov 9, 2014 | [–]

The 'I' is optional, all you need is S and K. I = (SKK)

You can go simpler still: Iota.

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