2 ms·

Now I'm confused because the root comment I was replying to asserted that type hints are for documenting, not for checking. If they are for checking, then my o

• dragonwriter 5y ago
  They are for documenting and checking. Obviously, if static typing is your only concern, you wouldn't have picked Python to start with, but if you did have a reason to pick Python, you can get a large subset of the value of static typing for correctness and dev-tine information via Python’s support for type hints and the typecheckers (mypy keeps getting pointed to, but it's not the only one) that support it.
  • the_af 5y ago
    Yes, obviously. There are outside factors why Python was chosen. I tend to work with whatever language is needed, and try to make the best of it. I've tried mypy and pytype, and found both to be unsatisfying and hard to sell to the team (which as I mentioned, don't even like writing tests). If you're thinking "well, that's a culture/professionalism rather than a technical problem", you are absolutely right! But I'm left wondering if a language that was better at static typing would be better because, a- the checking would be mandatory, and b- it would be demonstrably more effective than Python's "optional" checking/hinting. At least it'd remove one variable from the problem. Or maybe not, who knows.