Static Typing in Python

[Dang Griffith]

On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 07:07:50 +0000 (GMT), Premshree Pillai
<premshree_python at yahoo.co.in> wrote:

> --- Jacek Generowicz <jacek.generowicz at cern.ch>
>Yes, I am aware that Python is dynamically typed, and
>so is Perl, right? In Perl, we have the "use strict
>vars" pragma to force variable declaration. Is there
>something like it in Python?

No, but you can use pychecker to get similar results.

>Don't you think forced variable declaration is an
>important requirement in a language?

Not really.  Forced variable initialization is what's important.
Unlike C, et al, and Perl, variables don't have a default 
initial value.  If you try reference a variable that hasn't been
initialized ("bound to a value", in python lingo), python raises a
NameError exception.

    --dang
p.s.
I know technically Perl initializes to 'undef', but it's magically
treated as 0 or an empty string, depending on context, so the
effect is much the same.