def update(self, *pa, **kwa):
        for a in pa:
            if isinstance(a, modict): #positional arg is modict
                for k, v in a.iterallitems():
                    self.append(k, v)
            elif hasattr(a, 'get'): #positional arg is dictionary
                for k, v in a.iteritems():
                    self.append(k, v)
            else: #positional arg is sequence of duples (k,v)
                for k, v in a:
                    self.append(k, v)

        for k,v in kwa.items():
            self.append(k, v)
modict.update(pa1, pa2, ...) where pa = tuple of positional args,
dataset/ETHPy150Open ioflo/ioflo/ioflo/aid/odicting.py/modict.update