[spott]

They are equivalent. In function signatures (what your article is talking about), using dict() instead of {} will have the same effect. The only difference is that {} is a literal of an empty dict, and dict is a name bound to the builtin dict class. So you can reassign dict, but not {}, and if you use dict() instead of {}, then you have a name lookup before a call, so {} is a little more efficient.

[mickeyp]

Right, but it instantiates it _once_ on module load! That is the point I am making; nothing else.