dictionary initialization

[Caleb Hattingh]

Peter,

Right :)

I was trying to kill off (with kindness) a thread that just wasn't making  
sense.  The other respondents gave pretty good technical explanations  
regarding the dynamic typing rules, but I suspect the OP's assertion was  
just what I described in the simplest terms I could.  Which doesn't make  
sense as a critical language feature/flaw.

thx
Caleb

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 12:59:00 -0500, Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote:

> Caleb Hattingh wrote:
>> IF this is the point you are making, and the awk functionality  
>> demostrated  in this particular example is a really significant feature  
>> for you in your  specific problem domain, then I must concede that awk  
>> is probably right  for you, and you shouldn't waste your time with  
>> Python.
>
> Unfortunately for the logic, if one finds something like
> that to be a "really significant feature ... [in a] specific problem
> domain", then with Python you can of course create your own
> custom data type which behaves exactly as desired.  And in fact
> it is likely that there is additional behaviour that could be
> added that would make the Python approach to the problem *even
> simpler than the awk approach*, but maybe that's getting too
> much of a good thing...
>
> Of course, this capability prevents one from whining about how
> wonderful a specialized limited-purpose tool is compared to
> that waste of space called Python, but if it weren't for people
> like that Usenet would have no traffic and we'd all have lives
> instead.
>
> -Peter