title: Differences between a Python dictionary and JavaScript "dictionary"?
body: <p>I am learning JavaScript now. I learned in a class that JavaScript dictionaries are objects. The teacher said this in a way that implied that python dictionaries are not. It seems like to me a python dictionary is an instance of the class &quot;dictionary.&quot; One implication of this is that in JavaScript <code>my_dict['key1']</code> will return the associated <code>value1</code>, but so will <code>my_dict.key1</code>. In python, <code>my_dict.key1</code> will tell you that there is no method <code>key1</code> in the class &quot;dictionary.&quot; While I know how to use python, my general knowledge of programming is fairly week. My questions are these:</p>
  <ol>
  <li>what are the differences between Python dictionaries and JavaScript dictionaries</li>
  <li>What is the implication that &quot;JavasScript dictionaries are objects&quot; vs the corollary &quot;Python dictionaries are NOT objects&quot; (if that is true)?</li>
  <li>How does this effect how I should think about programing in Python vs JavaScript when using dictionaries?</li>
  </ol>