Implements MemBerDict, a nested dictionary-like Python object offering member attributes for faster access and improved code aesthetic.

MBD.py

"""
MBD.PY: MemBerDict

Implements MemBerDict, a nested dictionary-like object offering member attributes for faster access and improved code aesthetic.

Standard Python dictionaries can be converted to an MBD instance with convertDictToMBD, 
enabling streamlined connection to many Python serialization libraries, whose load functions return a Python dictionary. 

Similarly, an MBD instance can be converted to a Python dictionary to be fed to a serialization save. 
"""

from collections import OrderedDict

class MBD(OrderedDict):
    _closed = False
    def _close(self):
        self._closed = True
        for key, val in self.items():
            if isinstance(val, MBD):
                val._close()
    def _open(self):
        self._closed = False
    def __missing__(self, key):
        if self._closed:
            raise KeyError
        value = self[key] = MBD()
        return value
    def __getattr__(self, key):
        if key.startswith('_'):
            raise AttributeError
        return self[key]
    def __setattr__(self, key, value):
        if key.startswith('_'):
            self.__dict__[key] = value
            return
        self[key] = value

def convertDictToMBD(d):
    mbd = MBD()
    for key, value in d.iteritems():
        if isinstance(value, dict):
            setattr(mbd, key, convertDictToMBD(value))
        else:
            setattr(mbd, key, value)
    return mbd

def convertMBDtoDict(mbd):
    d = {}
    for key, value in mbd.iteritems():
        if isinstance(value, MBD):
            d[key] = convertMBDtoDict(value)
        else:
            d[key] = value
return d