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Using:
ActivePython 2.4.2 Build 10 (ActiveState Corp.) based 
on
Python 2.4.2 (#67, Jan 17 2006, 15:36:03) [MSC v.1310 
32 bit (Intel)] on win32
For reasons I do not understand, the following class 
leaks itself continuously:
class AttrDict(dict):
 def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
 dict.__init__(self, *args, **kw)
 self.__dict__ = self
Whereas this version does not:
class AttrDict(dict):
 def __init__(self, *args, **kw):
 dict.__init__(self, *args, **kw)
 
 def __getattr__(self, key):
 return self[key]
 
 def __setattr__(self, key, value):
 self[key] = value
My test looks like this:
for n in xrange(1000000):
 import gc
 gc.collect()
 ad = AttrDict()
 ad['x'] = n
 ad.y = ad.x
 print n, ad.x, ad.y
And I sit and watch in the windows task manager while 
the process grows and grows. With the __getattr__ 
version, it doesn't grow.