[Python-Dev] unnamed defs

[marcus]

Being unsatisfied with the way lambda works, i wondered what would the python
guys think of this:

class X:
____my_static_method = staticmethod(def (x, y): {
________some statements
____})

I hope decorators will be better for this case, but it's only an example. The
word 'lambda' could be used instead of 'def', i don't know what would be better.

The motivation of this suggestion is to improve consistency of the language and
correcting the one-expression-lambda we currently have. Look how consistent Lua
is in this regard. Passing functions to functions is considered useful by many
people (essential, sometimes), but 'lambda' cannot be used even when all we need
is a function that has an 'if' or an assignment, for example. 'lambda' seems to
be a hack.

Since unnamed functions can to be used anywhere, i chose braces as delimiters,
but indentation would work normally inside them. Also, the syntax is easy to
recognize and is not ambiguous.

If Python (3.0? 2.5?) had this feature, i would be very happy!

I suspect that this subject has already been discussed, but it's easier to find
lambda tricks than a good rationale of its limitations.