On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 at 16:40, Ned Batchelder <n...@nedbatchelder.com> wrote: > > "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.
Agreed. When lambda was introduced, "anonymous functions" were not as common in programming, and the most obvious example of their usage was in lisp, where "lambda" was the accepted term. Since then, lisp has not gained much additional popularity, but anonymous functions have appeared in a number of mainstream languages. The syntax is typically some form of "a, b -> a+b" style, and *never* uses the term "lambda". So someone coming to Python with any familiarity with other languages will now find Python's form atypical and obscure. People coming with no experience of other languages will need to have a history lesson to understand why the term is "lambda" rather than "something more obvious". People can, and will, learn Python's syntax. This isn't a major disaster. But if this were a new feature, we'd not be having this discussion, and "lambda" wouldn't even be a consideration. I'm also not taking a side on whether a change is worth the disruption. Personally, I prefer the arrow syntax, but we're not making a decision in a vacuum here. Someone has to make a case (probably in a PEP) if this is going to change, and the trade-offs should be clarified there. Paul _______________________________________________ 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/M25C6O55JCYLFOUW7DPPFGAETVOGN6R5/ Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
