Nice Python function for dictionaries

Not my code but found this whilst browsing for some functionality. Basically allows you to use .dot formatting when accessing keys in a dict:

class dotdictify(dict):
    marker = object()
    def __init__(self, value=None):
        if value is None:
            pass
        elif isinstance(value, dict):
            for key in value:
                self.__setitem__(key, value[key])
        else:
            raise TypeError, 'expected dict'

    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        if isinstance(value, dict) and not isinstance(value, dotdictify):
            value = dotdictify(value)
        dict.__setitem__(self, key, value)

    def __getitem__(self, key):
        found = self.get(key, dotdictify.marker)
        if found is dotdictify.marker:
            found = dotdictify()
            dict.__setitem__(self, key, found)
        return found

    __setattr__ = __setitem__
    __getattr__ = __getitem__

Now we can use '.' rather than having to use standard ['key'] syntax: eg:

life = {'bigBang' :  {'stars':  {'planets': {} }}}

life = dotdictify(life)

print life.bigBang.stars.planets
instead of:
print life['bigBang']['stars']['planets']

life.bigBang.stars.planets.earth = { 'singleCellLife' : {} }
print life.bigBang.stars.planets

Ok, so it's just syntax candy, but does makes things easier to read in code.