indirect argument assignment

[jepler at unpythonic.net]

On Sat, Oct 12, 2002 at 12:49:52PM -0700, Donnal Walter wrote:
>     def Add(self, type, name, arg1, arg2):
>         self.__dict__[name] = type(arg1, arg2)
>         self.objectList.append(self.__dict__[name])

I'd probably write
    def Add(self, constructor, name, arg1, arg2):
        val = constructor(arg1, arg2)
        setattr(self, name, val)
        self.objectlist.append(val)
    
the setattr() builtin will do what you want, without naming __dict__:
    Help on built-in function setattr:

    setattr(...)
        setattr(object, name, value)
        
        Set a named attribute on an object; setattr(x, 'y', v) is equivalent to
        ``x.y = v''.

Jeff