[julia-users] The new Dict syntax in 0.4 is very verbose

[Michael Francis]

With the change to 0.4 happening soon I'm finding the the new Dict syntax 
in 0.4 (removal of {}, []) is extremely verbose.

I find myself interfacing with JSON APIs frequently, for example a 
configuration dictionary :

data = {
        :displayrows => 20,
        :cols => [
                    { :col => "l1" },
                    { :col => "l2" },
                    { :col => "l3" },
                    { :col => "num", :display => true },
                    { :col => "sum", :display => true, :conf => { :style => 
1, :func => { :method => "sum", :col => "num"  } } }
                ]  
       ... # Lots more   
    }

becomes -

data = Dict{Symbol,Any}(
        :displayrows => 20,
        :cols => [
                    Dict{Symbol,Any}( :col => "l1" ),
                    Dict{Symbol,Any}( :col => "l2" ),
                    Dict{Symbol,Any}( :col => "l3"   ),
                    Dict{Symbol,Any}( :col => "num", :display => true ),
                    Dict{Symbol,Any}( :col => "sum", :display => true, :conf 
=> Dict{Symbol,Any}( :style => 1, 
                                                                    :func => 
Dict{Symbol,Any}( :method => "sum", :col => "num" ) ) )
                ]  
       ... # Lots more
    )

This feels like asking a person using arrays to write the following

Array{Int64,2}( Vector{Int64}( 1,2,3), Vector{Int64}( 4,5,6) )

vs

[ [ 1, 2, 3] [ 4,5,6 ] ]

Can we please reconsider ?