Closure (computer programming): Difference between revisions

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== History and etymology ==

The concept of closures was developed in the 1960s for the mechanical evaluation of expressions in the [[λ-calculus]] and was first fully implemented in 1970 as a language feature in the [[RpalPAL (programming language)|PAL]] programming language]] to support lexically scoped [[first-class function]]s.<ref name=dat2012>[[David A. Turner]] (2012). [http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/tfp12/tfp12.pdf "Some History of Functional Programming Languages"]. Trends in Functional Programming '12. Section 2, note 8 contains the claim about M-expressions.</ref>

[[Peter Landin]] defined the term ''closure'' in 1964 as having an ''environment part'' and a ''control part'' as used by his [[SECD machine]] for evaluating expressions.<ref name=landin>