High Order Messages in Python

[bonono at gmail.com]

thanks. Seems that my programs are very simple and don't need these
feature yet.

Kent Johnson wrote:
> bonono at gmail.com wrote:
> > counting that out(regardless whether it is (dis)advantage or not), what
> > else a block can do but not a named function ?
>
> My limited understanding is that the advantage is
> - simpler syntax
> - high level of integration into the standard library (*many* methods that take closure arguments). Blocks are used not just for iteration but for the kinds of things shown in the examples to PEP 343 http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0343.html
>
> For example to open a file and read from it uses two closures, one to wrap a block with the file open/close, one to iterate lines (from the pickaxe book):
>
> File.open("testfile") do |file|
>   file.each_line { |line| puts line }
> end
>
> Kent
>
> >
> > Alex Martelli wrote:
> >
> >>bonono at gmail.com <bonono at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>could someone enlighten me what is the advantage of block over named
> >>>function ?
> >>>
> >>>One thing that I can see a difference may be lexical scope ?
> >>
> >>"Yes, but" -- according to the latest Ruby book, the "mixed lexical
> >>scope" of blocks is a highly controversial notion in the Ruby community;
> >>so I wouldn't necessarily count it as an _advantage_ of Ruby blocks...
> >>
> >>
> >>Alex
> > 
> >