using getitem() correctly

Wed Dec 30 07:57:51 EST 2015

Hello,
I thought __getitem__() was invoked when an object is postfixed with an 
expression in brackets:
 - abc[n]
and __getattr__() was invoked when an object is postfixed with an dot:
 - abc.member
but my __getitem__ is being invoked at this time, where there's no 
subscript (going into a spiral recursion death):
 self.mcc = self.attrs.mcc
Can anybody explain to me why __getitem__() would be invoked here?
I'm using __getitem__() AND __getattr__() to handle an array of objects 
which don't exist yet (autovivification). My __getattr__() could handle 
the line above, but I don't know how to handle that in __getitem__():
 attrdict:av:__getitem__: entered for mcc
That's printed by this line:
 print "attrdict:av:__getitem__: entered for ", key
I expected that "key" would always be numeric or a slice
TIA
cts

using __getitem()__ correctly

using getitem() correctly