I'm kinda leaning -0.5 even on the form that I think is least bad (the mode switch approach).
If typing the same variable from the caller to use in the parameter is really too much repetition, you could maybe just do this:
>>> render_template("index.html",
... username="display_name",
... setups="setups",
... **Q("x y z"))
('index.html',)
{'username': 'display_name', 'setups': 'setups', 'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3}
Perhaps the spelling of `Q` might be something else. But in terms of character count, it's not worse than other proposals.
And luckily all you need to do this is get a version of Python later than 1.4 or something like that. :-)
>>> def Q(names):
... import sys
... caller = sys._getframe(1)
... dct = {}
... for name in names.split():
... dct[name] = eval(name, globals(), caller.f_locals)
... return dct
For what it's worth, I'm a strong -1 on this whole thing, regardless of syntax.
I think passing a lot of same-named parameters is an anti-pattern, that should be discouraged, not made easier.
Passing an occasional x=x to so some function no disaster;
if it happens often enough to be a problem, IMNSHO, you should look to change your coding style, not the language.
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