[Python-Dev] Very Strange Argument Handling Behavior

[Alex Gaynor]

Hi all,

I ran into the follow behavior while making sure Django works
correctly on PyPy.  The following behavior was observed in all tested
versions of CPython (2.5, 3.1):

>>> def f(**kwargs):
...     print(kwargs)
...
>>> kwargs = {1: 3}
>>>
>>> dict({}, **kwargs)
{1: 3}
>>> f(**kwargs)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: f() keywords must be strings
>>>


This behavior seems pretty strange to me, indeed PyPy gives the
TypeError for both attempts.  I just wanted to confirm that it was in
fact intentional.

Thanks,
Alex

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