[Python-Dev] Non-string keys in namespace dicts

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 03:51 PM 12/3/2007 -0800, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>On Dec 3, 2007 3:48 PM, Phillip J. Eby <pje at telecommunity.com> wrote:
> > Actually, you're missing the part where such evil code *can't* muck
> > things up for class dictionaries.  Type dicts aren't reachable via
> > ordinary Python code; you *have* to modify them via setattr.  (The
> > __dict__ of types returns a read-only proxy object, so the most evil
> > rich compare you can imagine still can't touch it.)
>
>What's to prevent that evil comparison to call setattr on the class?

If you're caching values, it should be sufficient to have setattr 
trigger the invalidation.  For entries, I have to admit I don't 
understand the approach well enough to make a specific proposal.