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.
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.