def foo(): a, b, c = 1, 2, 3 function(a=77, **use('b d'))

foo() You get the output “77 None 33 None”. So basically it doesn’t work at all. For the reason I wrote clearly in my last mail. You have to dig through the stack frames to make use() work.

OK, you are right. Improved implementation. Still not very hard. In any case, I'm concerned with the API to *use* the `use()` function, not how it's implemented. The point is really just that we can accomplish the same thing you want without syntax added.

...

...

import inspect def reach(name): ... for f in inspect.stack(): ... if name in f[0].f_locals: ... return f[0].f_locals[name] ... return None ... def use(names): ... kws = {} ... for name in names.split(): ... kws[name] = reach(name) ... return kws ... def function(a=11, b=22, c=33, d=44): ... print(a, b, c, d) ... function(a=77, **use('b d')) 77 None 33 None def foo(): ... a, b, c = 1, 2, 3 ... function(a=77, **use('b d')) ... foo() 77 2 33 None