The -calculus is an extension of the -calculus with a pattern matching facility. The form of the argument of a function can be speci ed and hence -calculus is more convenient than ordinary -calculus. We explore the basic theory of -calculus, establishing results such as con uence. In doing so, we nd some requirements for patterns that guarantee con uence. Our work can be seen as giving some foundations for implementations of functional programming languages.
Jan Willem Klop, Vincent van Oostrom, Roel C. de V