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The grouping of expressions is clearer to many readers in the JS example. Unless you've spent a decent amount of time grokking the lambda calculus, the second line could be any of:

    (λx. (λf. f)) x
    (λx. (λf. f) x)
    (λx. (λf. f x))
The lambda calculus notation is weird. Using "." to separate parameter and body is unusual. The scope of the body isn't obvious.

JS is painfully verbose, but it's a verbose syntax many people have already put the time in to internalize.



Put the brackets in the lambda syntax then. It would be unambiguous and still clearer than the Javascript syntax.




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