In fact it is simpler than that - as all the checking for extensible
attributes and dealing with default values is done in the java or C++
so all the __setitem__ etc functions have to do is to call down to the
underlying layer.
Steve
2009/11/4 Steve Fisher
Just a note to remind people that the dictionary syntax in python is just a convenience - you need to implement __setitem__, __getitem__, __delitem__ etc. Our __setitem__ can reject requests to set fields whoch don't already exist for those cases where the set of attributes is not extensible. It just needs a private method called by the implementation to set the attributes with any defalt values and indicate whether or not it is extensible. I think it is best to try it and see if there are any practical problems. Also see: http://docs.python.org/library/userdict.html#module-UserDict which may be useful.
Steve