[Haskell-cafe] Re: Displaying # of reductions after eachcomputation in ghci?

[apfelmus]

Ben Franksen wrote:
> Lennart Augustsson wrote:
>> What is a reduction anyway?
> 
> I am not an expert but I thought in lambda calculus one has primitive rules
> for evaluation, e.g. beta reduction. So a reduction is a 'smallest step' in
> reducing an expression to normal form, no?

Yes and no, a single beta reduction step like

   (\x.c(d(e(f(x))))) g
  => c(d(e(f(g))))

may take 5 steps in some reduction strategies since you have to walk 
down the expression tree to find the variable and replace it with its 
value. In the end, seconds are a better measure for time :)


Regards,
apfelmus