Details
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Improvement
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Status: Closed
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Major
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Resolution: Fixed
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None
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None
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Patch Available
Description
The python constructors are clunky and unnecessarily difficult to use. Instead of
Cls(value1, value2, ...)
you must write
Cls(
{'arg1': value1, 'arg2': value2})
(or use the dict constructor instead of literal notation).
Additionally, having the constructor silently do nothing if a non-dict is passed in (an object of the type being created would be another reasonable guess) or if an argument is mis-spelled causes users unnecessary trouble debugging.
Since removing the d argument entirely would be backwards-incompatible, the attached patch keeps it, but puts real keyword parameters in for forwards-compatibility. Thus, old code will work with this patch, but new code can be written using keyword args that will still work when the d argument is removed in a release that allows backwards-incompatibility. (Removing the d argument is desireable because otherwise positional arguments can't be used.)