Re: I sing the praises of lambda, my friend and savior!

From: Clark C. Evans (cce_at_clarkevans.com)
Date: 10/11/04 

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 14:08:05 -0400
To: Jeff Shannon <jeff@ccvcorp.com>

On Mon, Oct 11, 2004 at 10:54:05AM -0700, Jeff Shannon wrote:
| I don't agree. I *still* have to stop and think every time I see a
| lamba -- they parse completely differently in my mind than anything else
| in Python does, and they confuse me every time. Yes, defining a small
| function requires two extra lines... but, y'know, it's not like my
| editor is going to run out of paper. And I find that a well-chosen
| name, even for a single-use thing like this, greatly adds clarity. To
| my mind, calling this func_callback(), or some such descriptive name,
| makes the intent *much* more clear than 'lambda' does.

I beg to differ; and I'm talking about _my_ code, not yours.

| Only when one is already familiar with lambdas. I've gotten to the
| point where I *can* understand them, but it's still a struggle. It
| seems to me that the benefits of having lambda are outweighed by the
| fair amount of extra mental space that they use up. It just strikes me
| as too much of a special case to deserve special syntax that has
| absolutely no parallel elsewhere in Python.

If you don't like lambda -- don't use it. Just beacuse you are
unfamilar with a very helpful construct and are unwilling to learn
does not mean you should prevent others from continuing to enjoy
one of the more pleasant aspects of Python.

Kind Regards,

Clark

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