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Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:16:32 +1100
Subject: Re: Python dictionaries are awesome
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:33967

On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 1:32 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
> ... especially when you consider how some other languages implement them.
>
>
> http://twistedoakgames.com/blog/?p=3D925
>
> [quote]
> Here=92s the hypothetical situation: you=92re making a flash game. In tha=
t
> game users can create named profiles. You store the profiles, keyed by
> their name, so that you ca- OOPS, you just introduced a bug. What=92s the
> problem? The dictionary.
> [end quote]

Here's a crazy possibility. What if, instead of just the name, you use
"dictkey_"+name as the key? That's unlikely to conflict with anything.
Hey, I wonder if Adobe might even have been able to do that under the
covers! That would have been really easy, wouldn't have cost much, and
would have given full functionality! (Except that you now can't have a
property named "dictkey_foo", but that could be considered a
misfeature - you can use a dictionary as a sort of jump table.)

Python just happened to get it right by sheer luck, of course. No
designer could possibly foresee problems like that.

ChrisA