what's wrong with "lambda x : print x/60,x%60"

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 19:31:46 -0800, bonono wrote:

> 
> Paul Rubin wrote:
>> > Why use temporary variables when all you have to do is make your
>> > expressions three lines long to avoid "polluting the namespace"?
>>
>> Indeed.  I'd much rather say
>>
>>   x = a + b + (c * d) + e
>>
>> than
>>
>>   temp1 = a + b
>>   temp2 = c * d
>>   temp3 = temp1 + temp2
>>   x = temp3 + e
>>
>> I don't understand why the critics of lambda don't understand that
>> having to use so many temp variables, for either numbers or functions,
>> can work against both concision and clarity.
> 
> For some people, the second form is clearer.

If anybody needs to break an expression with three short terms up into
individual temporary variables in order to understand it, then I suggest
they should re-think their career choice as a programmer.

Having said that, there are some expressions which are sufficiently
complex that they do need to be broken up into smaller pieces. In which
case, you *should* be naming the pieces, and not trying to shoe-horn them
into a one-liner.



-- 
Steven.