[Python-ideas] Ruby-style Blocks in Python Idea

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>> [RE:"using" keyword].Setting it off with a new keyword, or
>> expanding the use of lambda is really a mandatory way of signifying
>> this INTENT.
>
> Your claim that this is somehow something new seems to be overlooking
> Lisp and Smalltalk, as well as Ruby which was mentioned in the quoted
> blog post.

Acknowledged.  However, the power of such a language as Lisp is
under-appreciated (as I think all who know it can agree), and the
problem with it (and the challenge of language design in general) is
how best to *orgranize* that power; i.e. that generality.  In my view,
Lisp is like assembly language for the mind.  It's powerful, but not
easily organized or visualized into a fashion where one can see and
evaluate the building up of and into higher-level constructs.

MY point was really about how the programming art *itself* hasn't
fully explored this concept to even be able to *evaluate* the power
and usefulness of employing techniques such as code blocks.  To me,
Python and Ruby are both exciting and interesting examples of how
language design is evolving to find ways to express and evolve that
power.  In my mind, there is no doubt that languages will have to find
elegant ways to express that power.  What's cool about Python and Ruby
is that it's taking that vast general space of the "mind's assembly
language" and distilling it down into nicely manageble and elegant
chunks of language syntax.  The concept of distinct, passable code
blocks is a nice example of that compression, one that certainly has
correspondence within our biology.

Thanks for the dialog though...

marcos