On 2018-08-22 01:25, Jonathan Fine wrote:
Hi Abe
Summary: You've done good work here. I've skim read the 2006
discussion you found.
You wrote:
I'm trying to dig up past threads about alternatives to lambda because I
would be astonished if "def" hadn't been considered and rejected for some
reason. What I've found so far is this unreassuring post from Guido back in
2006
[Python-Dev] Let's just *keep* lambda
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060415.html
This is an excellent piece of work. I'm most grateful. Here's what Guido said:
After so many attempts to come up with an alternative for lambda,
perhaps we should admit defeat. I've not had the time to follow the
most recent rounds, but I propose that we keep lambda, so as to stop
wasting everybody's talent and time on an impossible quest.
I've quickly read through the posts that followed Guido's message,
picked out the ones that interest me. Here's a list.
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060487.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060474.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060471.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060445.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060435.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060431.html
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-February/060470.html
And one of the messages had a link to still live and excellent page
https://wiki.python.org/moin/AlternateLambdaSyntax
This page lists over 100 suggestions, mostly variants. So far as I can
see, my simple proposal isn't listed on that page. The page also says
Hmm.
That lists:
def (a, b, c): return f(a) + o(b) - o(c)
and:
def (a, b, c) = f(a) + o(b) - o(c)
but not:
def (a, b, c): f(a) + o(b) - o(c)
**Definitely Desirable Features**
[snip]
*More friendly to inexperienced users*
[snip]
Compared to other Python keywords, 'lambda' is rather esoteric.
In the challenge for "farthest outside day-to-day English usage",
its closest competitor would probably be 'assert', as even 'def'
and 'elif' are just abbreviations for 'define' and 'else if'. Use of
simpler keywords may make deferred expressions appear less
intimidating than they seem with the current unusual keyword.
The word 'deferred' appears 7 times on the page. It also appears in
the python-dev messages.
If someone with more time and less bias then myself were to summarise
this discussion from 2006, I'd be most grateful, and they'd have
material for a great blog post.
Finally, many thanks to Abe for finding this gem, and countless
people's hard work in keeping it alive to be found. Backwards
compatibility is there for a reason.
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