On Tuesday 05 July 2005 06:57 pm, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 12:11:47 -0700, mcherm wrote: > > > And besides, "def" isn't a "magic" word... it's an abreviation for > > "define"... > > Really? I thought it was an abbreviation for "definition". As in, > "definition of MyFunc is..."
Does it matter? But no, "define" is correct, because the def keyword is active. It is *not* a declaration of a function but a command to define one then and there. > > I hope that any student who didn't understand a word as > > common as "define" wouldn't have graduated from our school. > > How about tuple? It's a generalization rather than a specialization: double (or couple) triple quadruple quintuple sextuple septuple octuple nontuple ... Maybe a wee bit less obvious, but still understandable. Besides, the existence of another poor choice of words wouldn't make the first one any better, would it? If you are arguing that "lambda" is the "right and proper" word for this operator that Python should use, I still will have to disagree. OTOH, if you just want the functionality of lambda to remain, I must say I agree. It's a useful construct. But it *is* poorly named. It really stands out as the least intuitive keyword in the language, IMHO. -- Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com ) Anansi Spaceworks http://www.anansispaceworks.com -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
