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[Python-Dev] Very Strange Argument Handling Behavior

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Fri Apr 16 16:15:59 CEST 2010 
Mark Dickinson wrote:
> "dict(x, **y)" as an expression version of x.update(y) seems to be
> fairly well known[1], so disallowing non-string keyword arguments
> seems likely to break existing code, as well as (probably?) harming
> performance.  So I can't see CPython changing here.  I'm not sure
> whether other implementations should be required to follow suit,
> though---maybe this should be regarded as an implementation-defined
> detail?

I would agree with leaving it implementation defined - I don't think
either PyPy or CPython should be forced to change their current
behaviour in relation to this. A minor note in the language reference to
that effect may be worthwhile just to make that stance official.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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