None of the published books on lambda calculus is quite satisfactory as a text for this course, and at least one of them is horrifically expensive. This quarter, we will start to fix that, by writing our own collaborative book and lecture notes.

Everything about the project is negotiable. I provide starting points and defaults here. We will produce the book as an open collaboration, and a substantial piece of your grade will depend on your participation in the project. Everyone may contribute to all parts of the book, but I will assign rotating project leaders to take responsibility for particular segments of the course. We will collaborate through CVS, and discuss the book on HyperNews in responses to my initial message. We will write the book in LaTeX, and produce an HTML version using LaTeX2HTML. I will give credit for contributions to the logistics as well as to the content of the book. Contributions to logistics, including LaTeX macros, CVS configuration, and Makefiles, will be concentrated at the beginning of the project.

The book will contain a topically organized text on lambda calculus, extracted from class discussion and other texts. It will also contain a brief diary of the class discussion, separated out as a sequence of sidebars. It may be easier to write the diary parts before the corresponding topical parts.