magical expanding hash

[Jean-Paul Calderone]

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 16:47:15 -0800, James Stroud <jstroud at ucla.edu> wrote:
>braver wrote:
>> Well, I know some python, but since there are powerful and magical
>> features in it, I just wonder whether there're some which address this
>> issue better than others.
>>
>
>In python, += is short, of course, for
>
>a = a + 1
>

No it's not.  It's short for

  if isinstance(a, object):
      if hasattr(a.__class__, '__iadd__'):
          _x = a.__class__.__iadd__(a, b)
          if _x is NotImplemented:
              a = b + a
          else:
              a = _x
      else:
          a = b + a
  else:
      if hasattr(a, '__iadd__'):
          _x = a.__iadd__(b)
          if _x is NotImplemented:
              a = b + a
          else:
              a = _x
      else:
          a = b + a

Roughly speaking, anyway.  Not that this is relevant to your point.

Jean-Paul