Normal arguments vs. keyword arguments

Question

How are \"keyword arguments\" different from regular arguments? Can\'t all arguments be passed as name=value instead of using positional syntax?

Answer 1

I'm surprised that no one seems to have pointed out that one can pass a dictionary of keyed argument parameters, that satisfy the formal parameters, like so.

>>> def func(a='a', b='b', c='c', **kwargs):
...    print 'a:%s, b:%s, c:%s' % (a, b, c)
... 
>>> func()
a:a, b:b, c:c
>>> func(**{'a' : 'z', 'b':'q', 'c':'v'})
a:z, b:q, c:v
>>>