The problem with inheriting from dict is that you then need to override *all* the methods in the dict object, because they all go straight to Python's dict'c C code functions. So just because you redefine __getitem__ doesn't mean you don't still have to redefine __contains__, get, update, etc. UserDict.DictMixin can help with this some, but the ideal situation would be to only have to define the methods you actually support. Inheriting from dict likely means you have to redefine a bunch of functions to raise Exceptions saying that they're unsupported.
You're just lucky the affected class is already overriding __getattribute__, so the __dict__ is generally getting accessed from Python code :)
If it weren't for that, object.c's direct calls to the PyDict_* API would be making things even more fun for you than they already are (as Duncan pointed out).
Cheers, Nick.
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Nick Coghlan | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Brisbane, Australia
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http://boredomandlaziness.skystorm.net
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