In computer science and recursion theory the McCarthy formalism (1963) of computer scientist John McCarthy clarifies the notion of recursive functions by use of the IF-THEN-ELSE construction common to computer science, together with four of the operators of primitive recursive functions: zero, successor, equality of numbers and composition. The conditional operator replaces both primitive recursion and the mu-operator.
In computer science and recursion theory the McCarthy formalism (1963) of computer scientist John McCarthy clarifies the notion of recursive functions by use of the IF-THEN-ELSE construction common to computer science, together with four of the operators of primitive recursive functions: zero, successor, equality of numbers and composition. The conditional operator replaces both primitive recursion and the mu-operator.
Source: Wikipedia "McCarthy Formalism" · CC BY-SA 4.0
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