[Python-Dev] Proposal: defaultdict

[Josiah Carlson]

Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Bengt Richter wrote:
> 
> > My guess is that realistically default_factory will be used
> > to make clean code for filling a dict, and then turning the factory
> > off if it's to be passed into unknown contexts.
> 
> This suggests that maybe the autodict behaviour shouldn't
> be part of the dict itself, but provided by a wrapper
> around the dict.
> 
> The you can fill the dict through the wrapper, and still
> have a normal dict underneath to use for other purposes.

I prefer this to changing dictionaries directly.  The actual wrapper
could sit in the collections module, ready for subclassing/replacement
of the on_missing method.

 - Josiah