[skoob]

> But a dict is a list of paired elements?

Not really. A dict is an unordered set of keys where each key has a value associated with it. If you try to access a dict as a list, you might expect to get a list of key-value pairs or a list of values or possibly a list of keys. And in what order will the elements in the list be?

[schlenk]

Tcl dicts are ordered, so you have a defined order for this. http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl/TclCmd/dict.htm#M27