Re: [PATCH] lambda with normal block syntax

On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 8:19 PM, Nobuyoshi Nakada <[e-mail]>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> At Sun, 25 May 2008 16:30:42 +0900,
> Eric Mahurin wrote in [ruby-core:16886]:
> > This patch is an independent but related one to my previous one.  It can
> be
> > combined to allow for normal block syntax lambdas with default arguments.
> > This patch allows you to make lambda's more concisely by simply removing
> the
> > "lambda":
>
> That syntax had been introduced once, but deprecated.
>

I looked back in the svn history to find this.  It looks like it was
introduced here:

r8044 | nobu | 2005-03-01 21:21:31 -0600 (Tue, 01 Mar 2005) | 9 lines
* parse.y (expr): interpret mere do...end block as proc object.
* parse.y (primary): ditto, for brace block.

and then removed when the "->" came along.

r8847 | matz | 2005-07-27 02:27:19 -0500 (Wed, 27 Jul 2005) | 19 lines
* parse.y (lambda): Perl6 style -> lambda expression. [NEW]
  [VERY EXPERIMENTAL]

So, it looks like this patch is just a reimplementation of the r8044 checkin
(which was removed at r8847).

Could we go back to having what was in r8044 along with the new -> lambda
for some more trials?  From my understanding of the -> in perl6, it looks to
have chosen for places ruby would use blocks.  It can be used in ruby in the
block context, so I don't think it makes sense for ruby.  I see almost
nobody likes the syntax.

What was the reason for the -> lambda introduced in r8847 over the do/end or
{||} lambda from r8044?  Was it default arguments?  If so, could my first
patch be used for default arguments (use primary instead of expr for default
vaule to resolve | ambiguity) instead?

Eric