On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:46:16 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>> Nah. The Iota calculus is much harder. ;-)
>> 
>> I gave up at integral calculus.  Too much memorisation.
> 
> I wonder what "calculus" actually means.

From the OED:

L.; = ‘small stone’, dim. of calx stone, pebble; also, a stone or counter 
used in playing draughts, a stone used in reckoning on the abacus or 
counting board, whence, reckoning, calculation, account; and a stone used 
in voting, whence, vote, sentence.

> I mean, there's differential calculus and integral calculus. Then
> there's the relational calculus, which is completely different. And then
> there are various combinator calculi, which are utterly different again.
> So what does "calculus" actually mean?

See above. :-)

Jim

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