def create_args(args, root):
    """
    Encapsulates a set of custom command line arguments in key=value
    or key.namespace=value form into a chain of Namespace objects,
    where each next level is an attribute of the Namespace object on the
    current level

    Parameters
    ----------
    args : list
        A list of strings representing arguments in key=value form
    root : Namespace
        The top-level element of the argument tree
    """

    extension_args = {}

    for arg in args:
        parse_extension_arg(arg, extension_args)

    for name in sorted(extension_args, key=len):
        path = name.split('.')
        update_namespace(root, path, extension_args[name])