[EMAIL PROTECTED] 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: > >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 > > -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
