exec1 is actually genuinely invalid according to the docs since it is neither a valid node (returning a text, options tuple) nor a single string which the documentation for the exec does suggest should be possible. So the exec2 example does indead appear to be inconsistent with documentation. I suspect the fault is with docs rather than with code here - since goto can now be a callable as well, there is no need to duplicate that functionality also from the exec. But it's worth looking into and/or clarifying.

This example indicates that exec may be used otherwise, without a return value in the manner of a valid node, using the lambdas as demonstrated.

That lambda is a callable directly given to the exec, it's not the same as supplying the name of a node in the Evmenu node tree.

Sorry, it took me a while to understand that distinction, that a string name of a function is handled completely differently (treated as a node) as opposed to directly providing the function object itself. I think that's where I got tripped up, since it seemed like exec would have treated both the same way (a function to be called as-is) regardless. Thank you for the clarification.

@RyanStein: I however agree this can be made clearer in the doc. :)

The traceback reported, from #1457:

Error in menu node 'check_choice'.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\commands\cmdhandler.py", line 509, in _run_command
ret = yield cmd.func()
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\utils\evmenu.py", line 266, in func
menu._input_parser(menu, self.raw_string, caller)
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\utils\evmenu.py", line 404, in evtable_parse_input
menuobject.callback_goto(callback, goto, raw_string)
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\utils\evmenu.py", line 733, in callback_goto
self.goto(goto, raw_string)
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\utils\evmenu.py", line 806, in goto
nodetext, options = self._execute_node(nodename, raw_string)
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\utils\evmenu.py", line 698, in _execute_node
nodetext, options = node(self.caller, raw_string)
ValueError: too many values to unpack

An untrapped error occurred.
(Traceback was logged 2017-10-01 19:14:38+1100).
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "c:\users\user\my documents\python\evennia\evennia\commands\cmdhandler.py", line 653, in cmdhandler
unformatted_raw_string, cmdset, session, player)
ErrorReported: 1

The exec option for EvMenu is deprecated as of Evennia 0.8 and should not be used if possible - all its functionality can be achieved through goto-callables. Closing.