At 08:32 PM 6/11/2008 -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:
The Data Model chapter of the Reference Manual lists .__dict__ as a special
attribute of callables, modules, classes, and instances. It describes
__dict__ as a "namespace dictionary" or "implementation of the namespace"
thereof. Since namespaces map names (or possibly non-name strings) to
objects, this to me implies that an implementation is and should not be
required to allow non-strings in __dict__.
The same chapter has more than one sentence saying something like "o.x is
equivalent to o.__dict__['x']". While one could read this as prohibiting
o.__dict__[non_string], one could also read it as being silent, neither
allowing nor prohibiting.
As it happens, most objects' __dict__ slots are settable by default,
and *require* that you set it to a dict or subclass thereof. This
seems (to me) to imply that a standard dictionary (i.e. one
supporting keys of any type) is required. (In the sense that a dict
subclass which rejects non-strings would be violating the Liskov principle.)
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