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Ruby's lambda is worse than Python's. Can you elaborate on why you think Python's lambda is castrated?

• brushbox 18y ago
  I think it is due to the statement/expression dichotomy that Python exhibits. Python's lambda doesn't allow the use of statements (correct me if I'm wrong I haven't written Python in a few years and they may have "fixed" this). Meanwhile Ruby only allows expressions too - the catch here is that everything in Ruby is an expression.
  • staticshock 18y ago
    They don't plan to fix this, it's part of the core philosophy
  • duane 18y ago
    A lambda is traditionally a functional programming product--think Lambda Calculus. Functional programming doesn't have statements, and neither should lambdas. Or do you mean anonymous function, in which case you're right.
• kaens 18y ago
  A python "lambda expression" can effectively only be a one-liner - basically the return line of a function minus "return". That is why people consider them castrated - in most languages I'm aware of that have a "lambda" statement, it can be read as "create an anonymous function that executes this body of statements". In python it reads as "perform a simple transformation or calculation on or with these arguments", as that's all it's generally good for.