Fate of lambda, Functional Programming in Python...

[Beeyah]

com-nospam at ccraig.org (Christopher A. Craig) wrote in message news:<mailman.2073.1093028474.5135.python-list at python.org>...
> "Jared Cohen" <Jared.Cohen at noaa.gov> writes:
> I can't think of a situation where you _really_ need the second (and
> much more limited) form.

Well, obviously the truth is you don't, however brevity tends to be a
programmer's best friend (the other edge of the sword, of course,
typically being the lack of readability.) The fact is that lambas
aren't really difficult understand, but occasionally you have to
linger on the line for a second or two longer to grasp what the
programmer is saying (provided you know how lambdas work -- a simple
feat)

>From what I've seen, the argument always either starts or ends with
the "it deters newbies" bandwagon, and I must say I don't agree. If
anything it sparks their curiosity as to what the keyword does, and
taking it out of the language would deter the demographic that banks
on it.

The other problem is how widely its used (a fact that's confirmed by
the defense lambda's receiving,) a lot of applications would have to
be changed and extended to accommodate the lack of our favorite
one-liner ;\

Beeyah