Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!think!bloom-beacon!ZOHAR.AI.MIT.EDU!gjs
From: gjs@ZOHAR.AI.MIT.EDU (Gerald Jay Sussman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
Subject: Limitation with lambda
Message-ID: <8810181343.AA00956@zohar>
Date: 18 Oct 88 13:43:26 GMT
References: <15590@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 30


You ask:

    For example, how would someone write a function generator that generates the
    sum of all squares or cubes or fourths, etc., based on an exponent?


How 'bout:

(define sum-of-powers 
  (lambda (power)
    (lambda (n)
      (sum-of (lambda (i)
                (expt i power))
              n))))

(define sum-of
  (lambda (termfun nterms)
    (if (= nterms 0)
        0
        (+ (termfun nterms) 
	   (sum-of termfun (- nterms 1))))))


;;; e.g.

((sum-of-powers 3) 5)
;Value: 225

Does this solve your problem?  If not, call me on the phone and I will
try to debug you.  My phone is (617) 253-5874.