[Python-3000] lambda

[Leif Walsh]

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 4:42 PM, Olivier Verdier <zelbier at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you ask a scientist, even a computer scientist, what "lambda" means he
> will invariably answer that it is a letter in the Greek alphabet. Only a few
> people working with lambda calculus will think of "lambda" as being related
> to a function. Many beginners (included myself) were puzzled by "lambda" the
> first time they meet it. It doesn't look as clean as the rest of python
> syntax where you hardly need explain what the keywords mean.

I really don't think that "some people won't get it" is a good reason
to change a symbol anyway.  Lambda is already used in plenty of other
languages, for the same idea, so if someone comes to python without
having seen lambda before, sure, they'll have to learn what it means
(they'd have to learn ldef or whatever anyway), but then they'll
understand better if they ever program in Lisp.

I also must ask, would you rather get rid of "string" too?  Last time
I heard, cats played with them and they might make up the universe.

-- 
Cheers,
Leif