[Python-ideas] lambda

[Malte Helmert]

[follow up from py3k.devel list]


Neil Toronto wrote:

> Yep. In my seven years of CS instruction so far, I've only come across 
> this once, in a theory of programming languages course. "Lambda" simply 
> doesn't show up unless you do language theory or program in a Lisp... or 
> in Python.

Since you mention Haskell below:

> It's a little less terse than Haskell's "\->"

it's worth pointing out that Haskell uses the backslash syntax because
it is the nearest ASCII equivalent to the (lower-case) letter lambda.
For example, see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Haskell/More_on_functions
or the Google results for "haskell lambda backslash" (without the quotes).

Malte