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Norman Ramsey wrote:
> Does Lua need a short lambda syntax? I like FP and lambda calculus as > much as the next guy, but if you want a minimalist functional language > what is wrong with Scheme? Seriously, Scheme isn't 'minimalist' any longer, and it hasn't been for a long time. Lua has a much better power-to-weight ratio. Even though I hate, hate, hate the fact that I can't write anonymous functions concisely.
As do I. I believe you and I have similar tastes. Now that hexadecimal escape sequences (and bit operations) have made it into Lua, this is on the top of my short list of desired features.
The '|args|expression' form is good for 'function(args) return expression end', though I think it would fit better with some sort of closing token. A form that accepts statements would be nice, too, but I think it would be too far from Lua's essence, whereas a syntactic sugar just for returned expressions is simple enough - and readable enough - that I believe it would be a benefit, not a detriment. My opinion, of course.
I like Scheme. It is beautiful. But I must admit that the standard seems overly complex. I couldn't tell you how to fix it, only how it appears to me.
Sorry, I just noticed the 'Shorter lambda forms' follow-up thread. This could have gone there instead.
Doug