Manny’s Reviews > Combinators: A Centennial View > Status Update

Well, the book definitely improves as it progresses. The historical sleuthing about Moses Schönfinkel's life and the details of Hilbert's Göttingen circle is really quite interesting.

I would have put the sections in the exact opposite order. To me, it makes more sense first to say who Schönfinkel was, then what he created, and finally what we can do with it using modern computational methods.

I just don't understand the organisation. After more than a hundred and fifty pages showing us examples of combinators, he's finally got round to explaining what they are and why they're interesting. IMHO, reversing the order would make the book a whole lot more readable.

Combinators have never really caught on, explains Wolfram. Well, I'm starting to see why.