[Python-Dev] Re: "groupby" iterator

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 11:14 AM 12/3/03 -0800, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> > I think this is the key thing here. Lambda in its full form is very
> > flexible and wide ranging - but 90% of the time, this flexibility
> > isn't needed. And everything pays a cost for that flexibility, even
> > when it's not used.
> >
> > Something that did that 90%, fast and efficiently, while leaving
> > lambda for the few remaining cases where its flexibility is needed
> > (possibly with an intent to deprecate it in the future) would probably
> > be the best option.
>
>For the remaining 10%, you could just use 'def' if lambda didn't exist
>at all.

Some use cases could get quite inconvenient unless function decorators were 
also available, but if we're talking about 3.0, then I suppose they would 
be.  :)