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[Python-Dev] defaultdict proposal round three

Raymond Hettinger raymond.hettinger at verizon.net
Wed Feb 22 01:54:57 CET 2006 
> Alex Martelli wrote:
> 
>> If we call the type autodict, then having the factory attribute named  
>> autofactory seems to fit.
> 
> Or just 'factory', since it's the only kind of factory
> the object is going to have.

Gack, no.  You guys are drifting towards complete ambiguity.
You might as well call it "thingie_that_doth_return_an_object".
The word "factory" by itself says nothing about lookups and default values.
Like "autodict" could mean anything.  Keep in mind that we may well
end-up having this side-by-side with collections.ordered_dict.
The word "auto" tells you nothing about how this is different from
a regular dict or ordered dictionary.  It's meaningless.

Please, stick with defaultdictionary and default_factory.
While not perfectly descriptive, they are suggest just enough
to jog the memory and make the code readable.
Try to resist generalizing the name into nothingness.



Raymond
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