[Python-Dev] PEP 8: Discourage named lambdas? (original) (raw)

Leif Walsh adlaiff6 at gmail.com
Sat May 3 20:47:27 CEST 2008

On Sat, 3 May 2008, Brett Cannon wrote:

On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 1:03 AM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote: > Some people write > somename = lambda args: expression > instead of the more obvious (to most people) and, dare I say, standard > def somename(args): return expression > > The difference in the result (the only one I know of) is that the code and > function objects get the generic name '' instead of the more > informative (in repr() output or tracebacks) 'somename'. I consider this a > disadvantage. > > In the absence of any compensating advantages (other than the trivial > saving of 3 chars), I consider the def form to be the proper Python style > to the point I think it should be at least recommended for the stdlib in > the Programming Recommendations section of PEP 8. > > There are currently uses of named lambdas at least in urllib2. This to me > is a bad example for new Python programmers. > > What do our style mavens think?

+1.

A superfluous +1 from me too, although I will mention that lists of lambdas have saved my butt more than a few times.

-- Cheers, Leif

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