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Let’s continue analysis from Performance Analysis of Python’s dict() and {} and dive deeper into the Python’s internal types for dict.

During my 12–year journey through formal education I became very familiar with 6–point grading scale. It’s one of those things you are exposed to so early in life, that you accept it as a truth about the world. And for me, empirically, it made sense. I could always say if something was excellent, very good, good, acceptable, bad, or tragic.

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If so, then you’ve come to the right place. Join me, my friend, on this discovery of Shamir’s secret sharing.

When you create a new social service on the internet, one of the things you need to think about is how to make a user’s space feel like their own. Services like GitHub, Roll20, or Reddit generate — or allow you to generate — a custom avatar (i.e. Identicons) for your account. Avatar auto-generation is especially neat, as it does not require any engagement from the user. Let’s try to figure that out on our own.

Some time ago, during a code review, I had a discussion with a colleague of mine about preferring dict() over {} in new Python code. They argued that dict() is more readable — and expresses intent more clearly — therefore should be preferred. I wasn’t convinced by that, but at that time I didn’t have any counterarguments, so I passed.

Yet that made me wonder: what’s the difference between the dict type and {} literal expression?