the assign operators, '=' and ':=', can set the value of dict items

operator-assign.go

@@ -89,6 +89,40 @@ func assignValue(ctx kern.ExprContext, leftTerm *scan.Term, v any, deepCopy bool
 	return
 }
 
+func evalAssignDictItem(ctx kern.ExprContext, dotTerm *scan.Term, valueTerm kern.Term) (v any, err error) {
+	var ok bool
+	var dictAny, dotKey any
+	var dict *kern.DictType
+
+	if err = dotTerm.CheckOperands(); err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	dotLeftTerm := dotTerm.GetChild(0)
+	if dictAny, err = dotLeftTerm.Compute(ctx); err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+	if dict, ok = dictAny.(*kern.DictType); !ok {
+		err = dotTerm.Tk.ErrorExpectedGot(kern.DictTypeName)
+		return
+	}
+
+	dotRightTerm := dotTerm.Children[1]
+	dotRightSym := dotRightTerm.Symbol()
+	if dotRightSym == scan.SymVariable || dotRightSym == scan.SymString {
+		dotKey = util.UnquoteString(dotRightTerm.Source())
+	} else if dotKey, err = dotRightTerm.Compute(ctx); err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	if v, err = valueTerm.Compute(ctx); err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	dict.SetItem(dotKey, v)
+	return
+}
+
 func generalEvalAssign(ctx kern.ExprContext, opTerm *scan.Term, deepCopy bool) (v any, err error) {
 	if err = opTerm.CheckOperands(); err != nil {
 		return
@@ -96,7 +130,9 @@ func generalEvalAssign(ctx kern.ExprContext, opTerm *scan.Term, deepCopy bool) (
 
 	leftTerm := opTerm.Children[0]
 	leftSym := leftTerm.Symbol()
-	if leftSym != scan.SymVariable && leftSym != scan.SymIndex {
+	if leftSym == scan.SymDot {
+		return evalAssignDictItem(ctx, opTerm.Children[0], opTerm.GetChild(1))
+	} else if leftSym != scan.SymVariable && leftSym != scan.SymIndex {
 		err = leftTerm.Tk.Errorf("left operand of %q must be a variable or a collection's item", opTerm.Tk.Source())
 		return
 	}