map/filter/reduce/lambda opinions and background unscientific mini-survey

[David Abrahams]

Tom Anderson <twic at urchin.earth.li> writes:

> Comrades,
>
> During our current discussion of the fate of functional constructs in 
> python, someone brought up Guido's bull on the matter:
>
> http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=98196
>
> He says he's going to dispose of map, filter, reduce and lambda. He's 
> going to give us product, any and all, though, which is nice of him.
>
> What really struck me, though, is the last line of the abstract:
>
> "I expect tons of disagreement in the feedback, all from ex-Lisp-or-Scheme 
> folks. :-)"
>
> I disagree strongly with Guido's proposals, and i am not an ex-Lisp, 
> -Scheme or -any-other-functional-language programmer; my only other real 
> language is Java. I wonder if i'm an outlier.
>
> So, if you're a pythonista who loves map and lambda, and disagrees with 
> Guido, what's your background? Functional or not?

Not.  But I've gained a real appreciation for functional programming
from my use of both C++ and Python. 

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com