Unfortunate exception on dict item assignment (and why aren't slices hashable?)

[Terry Reedy]

"Bengt Richter" <bokr at oz.net> wrote in message
news:bffq56$j27$0 at 216.39.172.122...
> from types import SliceType  # BTW, why is slice a  builtin
function, not a type?

I presume you are asking: Why hasn't slice been converted from a
'mere' function to a callable type like int, str, and float have been?

If this has not yet been done for the coming 2.3, I presume it will be
as soon as someone capable of doing the conversion decides to do so.
Slice was originally added for use by Numerical Extensions and so far
has probably seen little use by anyone else.  Hence its conversion is
of lesser priority.

Terry J. Reedy