Greet The Revamped Lambda Expressions and Closures Proposal

At the Bellevue meeting (Feb-Mar 2008) of the standards committee the revised proposal for adding lambda expressions and closures to C++ was approved. The original proposal which I described here in Oct 2005 is very different from the version that was finally accepted. Here's what you have to do to catch up with the completely revamped lambda proposal.

Three years of constant research and feedback from other committee members led have to substantial modifications and revisions of the original proposal. Therefore, the next C++ Reference Guide update due next week will discuss the new lambda proposal, overriding the older description of the lambda library. If you're interested, you're welcome to read the original account of the lambda proposal while it's still available online and compare it with the in-depth account of latest proposal.

It's worth noting that until not long ago, many committee members were skeptic about the chances of accepting lambda expressions into C++0x. Today it's already clear that lambdas are going to change the way we'll be using C++. For example, you'll see less and less function objects in new C++ apps. For-loops will also have a new, simpler canonical form and there will be fewer ordinary (i.e., non-lambda) member functions in your classes. Get all the details in the next C++ newsletter.