Can anyone volunteer to help with a Python 2.5 / Python 2.4 code issue?

[Jeff Spaleta]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Toshio Kuratomi <a.badger at gmail.com> wrote:
> Python-2.4 does have "setdefault" which is a misleading name (it doesn't
> "set" a "default") for something that can be made to replace defaultdict
> sometimes.
>
> Here's an example of making a replacement in python-fedora:
> http://bzr.fedorahosted.org/bzr/python-fedora-python-fedora-devel?cmd=revision;rev=397
>
> Usually, if I was going to rewrite some code, I'd use a try: except: as
> it's clearer what's going on.  Here's an example:

I just try: except: the import.

What's not clear to me is why defaultdict is needed at all in this
case.  There is no call to default_factory  and its default_factory
which lets you define a default value when a key is missing.  I dont
see that going on in the code so it looks to me like defaultdict can
just be replaced with dict with no pain  defaultdict=dict

-jef