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

[Neil Toronto]

Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> 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.

As long as you could determine whether PyDict_SetItem inserted a new 
key, it would make sense. (If it only updates a value, the cache doesn't 
need to change because the pointer to the entry is still valid and the 
entry points to the new value.) The PyDict_SetItem API would have to 
change, or the dict would have to somehow pass the information 
out-of-bound. Neither option sounds great to me, so I'd go with caching 
values from setattr.

Neil