Local functions

[Alex Buckley]

Initial reaction: local functions are a step too far, even if they do 
have a straightforward translation to lambdas.

Neal Gafter wrote:
> The traditional distinction between functions and methods is that
> methods are defined in an object scope, and therefore the object's
> members are in scope.  Functions, on the other hand, are defined in
> whatever scope they are declared in, and therefore inherit their
> lexical scope (including, e.g., "this") from their point of
> declaration.

And with that, how could anyone argue against lexical 'this'? :-)

My concern about lambdas duplicating the functionality of anon.inner 
classes has led me to think about dropping statement lambdas, keeping 
expression lambdas, and then adding block expressions. (I am avoiding 
saying anything about 'this' in such circumstances.)

Alex