(related to PEP 422 and issue #17044)

The execution namespace from a class definition is passed as the third argument to the metaclass (see builtin___build_class__() in Python/bltinmodule.c).  When applicable, which is almost always, the subsequent call to type.__new__() copies that namespace into a new dict which is in turn exposed via the class's __dict__.

This matters in the case where a metaclass with __prepare__() gets used (or the PEP 422 equivalent).  The language reference[1] should note that the object returned by __prepare__() is copied into a new dict when the class is finally created via the metaclass.

[1] http://docs.python.org/3.4/reference/datamodel.html#customizing-class-creation