# Refer - avram - a virtual machine code interpreter
avram - a virtual machine code interpreter

##### 2.7.9.2 Refer

In the style of recursive programming compelled by the available `meta` primitive, a function effectively requires a copy of its own machine code as its left argument. Bringing about that state of affairs is an interesting party trick.

If we had a definition of `bu` in the standard library implying

T16
  ([[`bu`]] `(`f`,`k`)`) x = f`(`k`,`x`)`

which for the sake of concreteness can be done like this,

         bu = (hired compose)(
                 left,
                 (hired couple)(compose(constant,right),constant identity))

then a definition of `refer` as

         refer = (hired bu)(identity,identity)

would be consistent with the following property of the operator.

P15
  ([[`refer`]] f) x = f`(`f`,`x`)`

The proof, as always, is a matter of routine calculation in the manner of the section on how `avram` thinks.

However, this pattern would occur so frequently in recursively defined functions as to be a significant waste of space and time. Therefore, rather than requiring it to be defined in terms of other operations, the virtual machine specification recognizes a pattern of the form below with respect to property P15,

T17
  [[`refer`]] f = `(((`f`,nil),nil),nil)`

and takes the property to be true by definition of the operator. A definition of `refer` consistent with T17 is therefore to be found in the standard library, not the definition proposed above.