Dictionary that uses regular expressions

[Peter Otten]

I would leave the __getitem__() method alone and just add a
filterMatches(self, regexp) returning a ReDict or findMatches(self, regexp)
returning a list/iterator of values. That preserves the symmetry of 

theDict[key] = value
value = theDict[key]

element access. It also makes client code more explicit as you can clearly
distinguish the reOn 

x = theDict.filterMatches(bla)

and reOff 

x = theDict[bla]

cases. Both reOn() and reOf() are no longer needed, plus you need not
overwrite __init__(), which preserves its expected (by users of dict)
behaviour.

Peter