[Python-Dev] Very Strange Argument Handling Behavior (original) (raw)

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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