It is well known that the real numbers arise from the metric completion of the rational numbers, with the metric induced by the usual absolute value. We seek a computational version of this phenomenon, with the idea that the role of the rationals should be played by the affine lambda-calculus, whose dynamics is finitary; the full lambda-calculus should then appear as a suitable metric completion of the affine lambda-calculus. This paper proposes a technical realization of this idea: an affine lambda-calculus is introduced, based on a fragment of intuitionistic multiplicative linear logic; the calculus is endowed with a notion of distance making the set of terms an incomplete metric space; the completion of this space is shown to yield an infinitary affine lambda-calculus, whose quotient under a suitable partial equivalence relation is exactly the full (non-affine) lambda-calculus. We also show how this construction brings interesting insights on some standard rewriting properties of the lambda-calculus (finite developments, confluence, standardization, head normalization and solvability).
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