"lambda" is unnecessarily obscure.
Beginner: "why is it called lambda?"
Teacher: "Don't worry about it, just use it to define a function"
I'm not taking a side on whether to change Python, but let's please not
lose sight of just how opaque the word "lambda" is. People who know the
background of lambda can easily understand using a different word.
People who don't know the background are presented with a "magic word"
with no meaning. That's not good UI.
--Ned.
On 2/14/21 11:39 AM, Paul Sokolovsky wrote:
Hello,
On Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:33:43 -0800
Christopher Barker <python...@gmail.com> wrote:
There seems to be a frequent objection to the word "lambda" --
personally, I found it cryptic, but it's not hard to remember, and it
IS easy to look up.
There seems to be a bit too many posts downputting the "lambda"
keyword, and nobody went for its defense, so let me do that. The
"lambda" is perhaps the greatest thing in Python after... after...
well, maybe it's the single greatest thing in Python.
As someone coming to Python from LISP (many years ago), I really
appreciate it, and always considered Python to be "a LISP for real
world".
So, it's of great utility to people familiar with functional
programming, but even of more utility to novices who are not yet -
thanks to it, by looking it up, they can get acquainted with the
wonderful world of functional programming and history of programming
languages.
Lambda is a sacred keyword, please don't touch!
_______________________________________________
Python-ideas mailing list -- python-ideas@python.org
To unsubscribe send an email to python-ideas-le...@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-ideas.python.org/
Message archived at
https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-ideas@python.org/message/DVCY2WHPO3N5R4I325ETOZUVBBZOJS7I/
Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
