

Functional Programming in Python - mk
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-prog.html

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damon
According to Guido, he wants to drop functional programming constructs in
Python.

<http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=98196>

What's interesting is the reasons he gives:

"Why drop lambda? Most Python users are unfamiliar with Lisp or Scheme, so the
name is confusing; also, there is a widespread misunderstanding that lambda
can do things that a nested function can't -- I still recall Laura Creighton's
Aha!-erlebnis after I showed her there was no difference! Even with a better
name, I think having the two choices side-by-side just requires programmers to
think about making a choice that's irrelevant for their program; not having
the choice streamlines the thought process."

Basically he wants to dumb down the language to make it more appealing to the
mainstream programmer crowd. He wants another java. In the end, I think that
mentality is a death sentence for the language.

~~~
AF
People continue to bring this post up. It is 2 years old, and Guido has said
he will not be dropping functional constructs in Python.

And the reason he wanted to remove them is not because he wants to 'dumb down'
the language, but rather because list comprehensions do what filter/map/reduce
can do 9 times out of 10 but end up a lot more legible. He says as much in
that post. But again, if you really want those functions, they still exist in
Python and will exist in the future.

~~~
michaelneale
I was under the impression (from documentation, not from experience) that
map/filter were the more "optimal" way to do things when you had a choice. I
certainly find them more intuitive then the alternatives.

Another feature is the nested defines - that is quite nice (considering that
you can put very little into a lambda).

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joshwa
Looks like a good read... sadly, it was useless since half the code blocks
lost their formatting and linebreaks, rendering it unreadable.

also: article is from 2001, talks about _new_ features in Python 2!

