python: constructor argument notation

Question

I'm a few months into learning python. After going through pyramid tutorials I'm having trouble understanding a line in the init.py

from pyramid.config import Configurator
from sqlalchemy import engine_from_config

from .models import (
    DBSession,
    Base,
    )



def main(global_config, **settings):
    """ This function returns a Pyramid WSGI application.
    """
    engine = engine_from_config(settings, 'sqlalchemy.')
    DBSession.configure(bind=engine)
    Base.metadata.bind = engine
    config = Configurator(settings=settings)
    config.include('pyramid_chameleon')
    config.add_static_view('static', 'static', cache_max_age=3600)
    config.add_route('home', '/')
    config.scan()
    return config.make_wsgi_app()

I'm lost about settings=settings in the configurator argument.

What is this telling python?

Answer 1

Python functions support keyword arguments:

def add(a, b):
    return a + b

add(a=1, b=2)

This happens here.

 Configurator(settings=settings)

The first settings is the name of the parameter in the __init__ of Configurator. The second is a name for an object in the current name space.