text_combined: olivier verdier ljfmkgfgmailcom ask scientist even computer scientist lambda means invariably answer letter greek alphabet people working lambda calculus think lambda related function many beginners included puzzled lambda first time meet doesnt look clean rest python syntax hardly need explain keywords mean guido said hadnt found better name well think almost name better especially name emphasizes fact lambda construction fact functions guido repeats lambda synctactic sugar function definition suggestion new name lambda much better describe namely function since function defined keyword def id suggest following possibilities ldef local definition indeed lambda definition idef inline definition cdef compact definition sdef shorthand definition etc anything along theses lines descriptive lambda newcommers immediately guess without wading manual python code also readable non python specialists late change name lambda python 2x change python 3000 since release breaks backwards compatibility anyway thoughts ideas better names lambda thanks thu 07 aug 2008 003804 0100 python3000 lambda