X-Git-Url: http://lambda.jimpryor.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lambda.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=topics%2Fweek4_fixed_point_combinators.mdwn;h=41a5273751c7fc6ca4fcf5c5e01d8f23f176f6e8;hp=ed22cfff6225d1841de515a7e2821532aa29be39;hb=7d5f235b46a5fb4ac8d6aaeffa65d0244522bdd0;hpb=6694165ac4d6edab602b3ad3651d0a5931b36a0e

diff --git a/topics/week4_fixed_point_combinators.mdwn b/topics/week4_fixed_point_combinators.mdwn
index ed22cfff..41a52737 100644
--- a/topics/week4_fixed_point_combinators.mdwn
+++ b/topics/week4_fixed_point_combinators.mdwn
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ saying that we are looking for a fixed point for `h`:
 
     h LENGTH <~~> LENGTH
 
-Replacing `h` with its definition, we have
+Replacing `h` with its definition, we have:
 
     (\xs. (empty? xs) 0 (succ (LENGTH (tail xs)))) <~~> LENGTH
 
@@ -289,7 +289,17 @@ If we can find a value for `LENGTH` that satisfies this constraint, we'll
 have a function we can use to compute the length of an arbitrary list.
 All we have to do is find a fixed point for `h`.
 
-The strategy we will present will turn out to be a general way of
+Let's reinforce this. The left-hand side has the form:
+
+    (\body. Φ[...body...]) LENGTH
+
+which beta-reduces to:
+
+    Φ[...LENGTH...]
+
+where that whole formula is convertible with the term `LENGTH` itself. In other words, the term `Φ[...LENGTH...]` contains (a term that convertible with) itself --- despite being only finitely long. (If it had to contain a term *syntactically identical to* itself, this could not be achieved.)
+
+The key to achieving all this is finding a fixed point for `h`. The strategy we will present will turn out to be a general way of
 finding a fixed point for any lambda term.
 
 
@@ -304,7 +314,7 @@ work, but examining the way in which it fails will lead to a solution.
 
     h h <~~> \xs. (empty? xs) 0 (succ (h (tail xs)))
 
-The problem is that in the subexpression `h (tail list)`, we've
+The problem is that in the subexpression `h (tail xs)`, we've
 applied `h` to a list, but `h` expects as its first argument the
 length function.
 
@@ -319,7 +329,7 @@ to discuss generalizations of this strategy.)
 
 Shifting to `H` is the key creative step.  Instead of applying `u` to a list, as happened
 when we self-applied `h`, `H` applies its argument `u` first to *itself*: `u u`.
-After `u` gets an argument, the *result* is ready to apply to a list, so we've solved the problem noted above with `h (tail list)`.
+After `u` gets an argument, the *result* is ready to apply to a list, so we've solved the problem noted above with `h (tail xs)`.
 We're not done yet, of course; we don't yet know what argument `u` to give
 to `H` that will behave in the desired way.
 
@@ -563,7 +573,7 @@ returns itself (a copy of `sink`); if the argument is boolean false
     sink true true false <~~> I
     sink true true true false <~~> I
 
-Evidently, then, `sink true <~~> sink`. So we want `sink` to be the fixed point
+To get this behavior, we want `sink` to be the fixed point
 of `\sink. \b. b sink I`. That is, `sink ≡ Y (\sb.bsI)`:
 
     1. sink false