Why functional Python matters

[Mark Jason Dominus]

In article <btqu9vkh7u9nj6v25uqevibqhlaq0m8br4 at 4ax.com>,
Courageous  <jkraska at san.rr.com> wrote:
>
>>But he regrets the inclusion of a crippled lambda, rather than the
>>inclusion of support for anonymous functions (IIRC).
>
>Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that I suspect that Guido
>didn't have any good alternatives. 


I don't believe that's correct.  At an early Open Source Conference,
perhaps around 1998 or so, I was present at a conversation between
Guido and Tom Christiansen.  Tom asked Guido why Python didn't have
closures, and Guido's reply (and I think this is an exact quote) was
"Closures aren't important."

I remember it because I was so astonished by the obtuseness of the answer.