changing local namespace of a function

[Alex Martelli]

Bo Peng <bpeng at rice.edu> wrote:

> M.E.Farmer wrote:
> >  I really don't see your need.
> 
> Maybe it is just my laziness. It is almost intolerable for me to write
> lines and lines of code like
> 
>    d['z'] = func(d['x']+d['y']+d['whatever']['as']+d[a][0] )
> 
> It is ugly, unreadable and error prone. If I have to use this code, I
> would write
> 
>    _z = func(_x + _y + _whatever['as'] + _a[0])

So, what about having as the real code
     d.z = func(d.x + d.y + d.whatever['as'] + d.a[0])
Doesn't seem too different from what you would write, would it?

To wrap a dictionary into an object whose attributes are mapped to items
of the dictionary is not hard: just start your function with

    d = type('wrapadict', (), {})()
    d.__dict__ = the_dict_to_wrap

and there you are.

Affecting *BARE* names is a completely different order of magnitude of
complication away from affecting *COMPOUND* names.  Barenames are,
almost inevitably, handled with deep magic, essentially for the purposes
of can't-do-without optimization; compound names are _way_ more
malleable...


Alex