Why Python does *SLICING* the way it does??

[Roy Smith]

In article <3csphpF6es7iuU1 at individual.net>,
Reinhold Birkenfeld  <reinhold-birkenfeld-nospam at wolke7.net> wrote:
>Roy Smith wrote:
>
>>>Other possibility, probably faster when almost all keys in the range are in
>>>the dictionary:
>>>
>>>class sdict(dict):
>>>    def __getitem__(self, index):
>>>        if isinstance(index, slice):
>>>            d = {}
>>>            for key in xrange(slice.start, slice.stop, slice.step):
>>>                if key in self:
>>>                    d[key] = self[key]
>>>            return d
>>>        else:
>>>            return dict.__getitem__(self, index)
>> 
>> The problem with that is it requires the keys to be integers.
>
>Yes, but wasn't it thought as a replacement for a list?

Originally, yes.  I went off on a tangent with string-keyed slices.