Shorthand for "function" keyword

[T.J. Crowder]

On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 2:58 PM, Laurentiu Taschina
<source.spider at gmail.com> wrote:

> So useless for callback usage, which a very big chunk of the use cases.

That's very different from the statement "only regular functions can have
names" but I can see how you got there. :-)

So naming inline callbacks is your primary motivation for this?

You're not going to have any luck getting `func`, `fn`, or `def` as a
keyword for this. Too much existing code would break. I'm certain I've used
all of those even just in my own code. Just about *any* short keyword is
going to have the same problem.

Which basically means we're back to the recurring theme of an
explicitly-named form for arrow functions (since you almost never want
`function` functions for inline callbacks anyway). That'll probably require
syntax rather than a keyword.

For instance, almost any flag character just inside the opening `(` could
work; an arrow seems apt:

```js
const sum = [1, 2, 3].reduce((>add> a, b) => a + b);
```

...or backticks or quotes or... Technically one only needs an ending
delimiter, but it simplifies parsing (human and machine) if there's an
up-front indicator of a name; delimiters both sides (two characters) seems
reasonable. (If we really wanted to go wild, the same thing could be a
declaration form. *Ducks head and runs for cover.*)

It's a totally solvable problem, but I wonder if the will is there.

-- T.J. Crowder
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