[Haskell-cafe] Call to arms: lambda-case is stuck and needsyour help

[Wolfgang Jeltsch]

Am Freitag, den 13.07.2012, 06:57 -0700 schrieb Donn Cave:
> Quoth Cale Gibbard:
> > Personally I don't see why everyone appears to prefer the syntax with
> > \ in it over just the obvious case section syntax which was originally
> > proposed.
> > 
> > case of { ... }
> ...
> > Does anyone else agree?
> 
> Yes.  I don't see this as an `anonymous function' in any special sense,
> only inasmuch as the workaround in its absence involves one.  I.e., if
> I for some reason had been compelled to write
>    \ a -> hPutStrLn stdout a
> 
> ... that wouldn't make "hPutStrLn stdout" an anonymous function in my book.
> Neither is `case of ...' an anonymous function, or functions.
> 
> 	Donn

What is an anonymous function? A function that has no name, that is, a
function that is not assigned to an identifier. So (+ 1), \x -> x + 1,
and any lambda case are all anonymous functions.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang