List of Functions

[Jussi Piitulainen]

Ben Bacarisse writes:

> It's shame that anonymous functions (for that's what's being returned
> here -- a function with no name) were born of a subject that used
> arbitrary Greek letters for things.  We seem stuck with the mysterious
> but meaningless "lambda" for a very simple and useful idea.

Well said.

Python should have called it "fun".

I have heard that the use of lambda for this purpose was originally not
an arbitrary choice but a typographical accident. A misinterpreted caret
or something. I also seem to remember that I've seen some discussion on
whether the story is true or not, but I forget which way it went.