为什么 collections.OrderedDict 使用 try 和 except 来初始化变量？

Question

以下是 Python 2.7 中collections 模块的源代码。我对OrderedDict 初始化其__root 变量的方式感到困惑。为什么要用try和except，有必要吗？为什么不能直接使用

self.__root = root = []                     # sentinel node
root[:] = [root, root, None]
self.__map = {}
self.__update(*args, **kwds) 

初始化self.__root?

非常感谢...

class OrderedDict(dict):
'Dictionary that remembers insertion order'
# An inherited dict maps keys to values.
# The inherited dict provides __getitem__, __len__, __contains__, and get.
# The remaining methods are order-aware.
# Big-O running times for all methods are the same as regular dictionaries.

# The internal self.__map dict maps keys to links in a doubly linked list.
# The circular doubly linked list starts and ends with a sentinel element.
# The sentinel element never gets deleted (this simplifies the algorithm).
# Each link is stored as a list of length three:  [PREV, NEXT, KEY].
def __init__(self, *args, **kwds):
    '''Initialize an ordered dictionary.  The signature is the same as
    regular dictionaries, but keyword arguments are not recommended because
    their insertion order is arbitrary.
    '''
    if len(args) > 1:
        raise TypeError('expected at most 1 arguments, got %d' % len(args))
    try:
        self.__root
    except AttributeError:
        self.__root = root = []                     # sentinel node
        root[:] = [root, root, None]
        self.__map = {}
    self.__update(*args, **kwds)

Answer 1

我发现了一个讨论here（值得注​​意的是，Raymond Hettinger 是一位 python 核心开发人员）。

基本上，对于用户第二次调用__init__（而不是update）的情况，这似乎是一种预防措施，如下所示：

In [1]: from collections import OrderedDict

In [2]: od = OrderedDict([(1,2), (3,4)])

In [3]: od
Out[3]: OrderedDict([(1, 2), (3, 4)])

In [4]: od.__init__([(5,6), (7,8)])

In [5]: od
Out[5]: OrderedDict([(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6), (7, 8)])

虽然非常不常见，但这主要是为了与dict.__init__ 保持一致，这也可以被称为第二次而不是dict.update：

In [6]: d = {1:2, 3:4}

In [7]: d.__init__([(5,6), (7,8)])

In [8]: d
Out[8]: {1: 2, 3: 4, 5: 6, 7: 8}  # warning: don't rely on this order!