[Python-Dev] __getattribute__ should require a string?

[Guido van Rossum]

> Is there any reason why people should be allowed to assign and
>  retrieve attributes with non-string names?

Not really, but why should we actively try to prevent it when it's
easy to do self.__dict__[1] = 'a'?  This means you can't rely on all
attribute names being strings, and I'm not going to prevent *that*.

The proper fix IMO for the bug you found is to be more careful when
formatting the error message.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)