[Python-Dev] Adding any() and all()

[Barry Warsaw]

On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 12:18, Raymond Hettinger wrote:

> I suspect that lambda will be the only bone of contention.  The reduce()
> function can be moved to the functional module.  The map() and filter()
> functions are already covered by the itertools module.

I'm fine seeing reduce() eventually go; I've used it maybe a handful of
times in all my years of Python.  Using a list comprehension instead of
map() is fine too, but I'll miss the filter(None, seq) idiom.  Ping's
suggested list comprehension abbreviation, i.e.:

[x in seq if x] == [x for x in seq if x]

might help.

> Lambda will be more difficult.  Eric Raymond adapted an anti-gun control
> slogan and said "you can pry lambda out of my cold dead hands."  A bunch
> of folks will sorely miss the ability to create anonymous functions on
> the fly.  When lambda is used for deferred argument evaluation (a la PEP
> 312), the def syntax is a crummy substitute.

Yeah, I'm with you here.  As warty as lambda is, it just is so damn
convenient some times.  I've recently been using it as a companion to
property(), providing concise definitions of read-only attributes.

-Barry

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