> Python is hamstrung on this front thanks to the white-space oriented formatting.
You could have multiline lambdas with Python's signficant whitespace, the then-BDFL just didn't think it was important enough to accept any of the syntax options proposed for it or to bother finding another option, believing named functions were sufficient for the multiline case.
i am sorry. you are right. i misremembered about sml (haven't written in it much and in a while) and incorrectly lumped in ocaml. i should have been more careful. f# was what was really on my mind.