Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

[David Eppstein]

In article <m3r81f1lu9.fsf at jcooper02.sagepub.com>,
 Jock Cooper <jockc at mail.com> wrote:

> "Terry Reedy" <tjreedy at udel.edu> writes:
> > The default-parameter hack which substituted for closures made lambdas
> > then more awkward, but I believe they were mostly just as useful as
> > today as callbacks and as HOF args.  In any case, closures were
> > introduced over two years ago in 2.1, and your original statement says
> > 'is', not 'used to be some years ago'.
> 
> Isn't it true though that the lambda can only contain a single expression
> and no statements?  That seems to limit closures somewhat.

It limits lambdas.  It doesn't limit named functions.  Unlike lisp, a 
Python function definition can be nested within a function call, and the 
inner function can access variables in the outer function's closure.

-- 
David Eppstein                      http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/
Univ. of California, Irvine, School of Information & Computer Science