Why use "locals()"

[Sean DiZazzo]

> > I have never used a call to "locals()" in my code.  Can you show me a
> > use case where it is valuable and Pythonic?
>
> def print_item(item):
>      description = textwrap.fill(item.description, 40)
>      short = item.description.split('\n', 1)[0]
>      code = str(item.id).zfill(6)
>      print "%(code)s %(short)s\n%(description)s\n" % locals()

I see the use of that, but according to Zen, "Explicit is better than
implicit."

>
> Transferring arguments:
>
> def foo(some, long, list, of, arguments):
>      additional = 5
>      return other(**locals())
>

Why not?:

def foo(**kwargs):
    kwargs["additional"] = 5
    return other(**kwargs)

> Defining properties:
>
> class ColourThing(object):
>      @apply
>      def rgb():
>          def fset(self, rgb):
>              self.r, self.g, self.b = rgb
>          def fget(self):
>              return (self.r, self.g, self.b)
>          return property(**locals())
>

So really it's just a short hand.  But it's against the Zen! Explicit
not Implicit!  I'm not convinced....then again, I didn't look at the
source code of the standard libraries.

~Sean