Let's Talk About Lambda Functions!

[Robert Hanlin]

Tim Peters <tim.one at comcast.net> wrote 
> I don't think so -- Guido isn't a fan of functional programming styles, and
> plain doesn't like lambda.  Except, of course, when he uses it, which is
> always for trivial little function arguments, in accord with his
> oft-repeated claim that the functional gimmicks were never intended to be
> more than "minor conveniences" (which he later amended to "minor
> annoyances", after people started clamoring for more of the same).  

Argh, why not write this in the Tutorial?  A sentence on its own line
saying that lambda is a minor convenience, and that all the horrors
commited in its name were not Pythonic.  I wouldn't write in Python
half as much as I do now if I didn't have functional stuff.  But
lambda is not important to me, except that when it makes code cleaner,
it works like a madman.

I don't want everyone putting down the functional community just
because lambda can be a bit nasty.  I'd be happy if it could somehow
be nuked from Python, just so functional programming doesn't get such
bad press for something it didn't do.

Robert