Lambda calculus has three rules, and yet booleans, arithmetic, linked lists, and recursion fall out of them. This is an account of building an interpreter for it in Odin — and of the theory that ambushes you along the way.
Toby Jordan
Self-Taught Programmer and Philosophy & RS Graduate
I am a self-taught programmer and recently graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Manchester, UK. I have always been passionate about computers, and I started programming when I was 10. Since then I have explored a range of domains, and I am proficient in Typescript, Odin and Python.
I am currently exploring the Lambda Calculus and Type Theory in a series of blog posts. The first post, which is out now, walks through my implementation of a lambda calculus interpreter in Odin - read it here. In the next post, coming soon, I will implement and discuss the Simply Typed Lambda Calculus.
Projects
What I’ve been working on recently
Lemuria Letterboxd and Early-Facebook inspired social media site. Built with a modern web stack: Bun, Typescript, Hono, Drizzle, Svelte 5 and Sveltekit.
Camel.py A Python-native UI framework that compiles to vanilla JS. Write web UIs in pure, idomatic python.
Kaworu Linux An elegant NixOS rice with flakes, built around Hyprland, Home Manager and Stylix.
Blog
Writings on technology, philosophy, and their intersection
Building a Lambda Calculus Interpreter in Odin Why I Choose Odin over Rust or C Rust solves real problems, but it doesn't know when to stop. Here is why I reach for Odin instead - and what we can learn from Scheme about what simplicity actually means.
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