title: What is the preferred syntax for initializing a dict: curly brace literals {} or the dict() function?
body: <p>I'm putting in some effort to learn Python, and I am paying close attention to common coding standards.  This may seem like a pointlessly nit-picky question, but I am trying to focus on best-practices as I learn, so I don't have to unlearn any 'bad' habits later.</p>
  <p>I see two common methods for initializing a dict:</p>
  <pre><code>a = {
      'a': 'value',
      'another': 'value',
  }
  
  b = dict( 
      a='value',
      another='value',
  )
  </code></pre>
  <p>Which is considered to be &quot;more pythonic&quot;?  Which do you use? Why?</p>