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 > **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. -- Jonathan _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
