Thomas F. Burdick wrote: > Ken Tilton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > >><g> Hopefully it can be a big issue and still not justify a flame war. >> >>Mileages will always vary, but one reason for lambda is precisely not >>to have to stop, go make a new function for this one very specific >>use, come back and use it as the one lambda statement, or in C have an >>address to pass. but, hey, what are editors for? :) >> >>the bigger issue is the ability of a lambda to close over arbitrary >>lexically visible variables. this is something the separate function >>cannot see, so one has to have a function parameter for everything. >> >>but is such lexical scoping even on the table when Ptyhon's lambda >>comes up for periodic review? > > > This is second-hand, as I don't actually follow Python closely, but > from what I've heard, they now have reasonable scoping rules (or maybe > they're about to, I'm not sure). And you can use def as a > Scheme-style inner define, so it's essentially a LABELS that gets the > indentation wrong.
Cool. And I know how much you like labels/flet. :) > This means they have proper closures, just not > anonymous ones. And an egregiously misnamed lambda that should be > fixed or thrown out. > > If Python gets proper macros it won't matter one bit that they only > have named closures, since you can macro that away in a blink of an > eye. Ah, well, there we go again. Without sexpr notation, the lexer/parser again will be "hard", and "hardly worth it": we get even more sour grapes, this time about macros not being such a big deal. One of the hardest things for a technologist to do is admit that a neat idea has to be abandoned. Initial success creates a giddy over-commitment to the design choice. After then all difficulties get brushed aside or kludged. This would not be a problem for Python if it had stayed a scripting language... well, maybe "no Macro!s" and "no real lambda!" and "no continuations!" are GvR's way of keeping Python just a scripting language. :) kenny -- Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/ "Have you ever been in a relationship?" Attorney for Mary Winkler, confessed killer of her minister husband, when asked if the couple had marital problems. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
