MAKE-ORD

a constructor for ordinals.
Major Section:  PROGRAMMING

Make-ord is the ordinal constructor. Its use is recommended instead of using cons to make ordinals.

(make-ord fe fco rst) corresponds to the ordinal (w^fe)fco + rst. Thus the first infinite ordinal, w (omega), is constructed by

(make-ord 1 1 0)
and, for example, the ordinal (w^2)5 + w2 + 7 is constructed by:
(make-ord 2 5 (make-ord 1 2 7)) .

The reason make-ord is used rather than cons is that it allows us to reason more abstractly about the ordinals, without having to worry about the underlying representation.