On 2022-03-07 21:32, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Brendan Barnwell writes:
I would be happier if fewer typing-related changes made it in.
I'm curious: do you use type annotations yourself? If yes, do you just prefer minimal hints to a precise typing system, or have there been changes that are actually harmful in your opinion? Examples? If no, are there examples of typing changes that actually cause problems for your code? (My definition of "actual problems" includes problems you know how to work around but are easy to miss until something goes wrong, aka bug magnets.) Typing changes that are annoying because you need to work around them (but you pretty reliably DTRT with them)?
No, I don't use typing annotations. They are one of the changes I wish hadn't made it in. :-) Of course, because of that they don't impact me much directly, but I do notice a lot of discussion about them in various places where people ask for help with Python problems (where I sometimes hang out to help). My perception based on that is that typing annotation take up air in the room, so to speak. They result in people wrestling with the type annotation system and the type annotation tools rather than writing code to do things, which is what I think Python is good at. (I should note that to the limited extent that I have tried to use type annotations myself, my experience has been similar. They are easy enough for simple things, but as soon as I want to do anything more, I quickly find the effort of dealing with them outweighs the benefit of using them.) So basically the reason I don't like typing-related changes is that I perceive them as being a bunch of churning motion in an area that really does not deserve that much attention or effort and is not worth it. Which is, in many cases, the same reason I oppose various proposals on this list. There is also a bit of slippery-slope concern, in that as more and more people adopt these changes, more and more other people who don't want to worry about typing wind up having to worry about it in order to work on projects. And that's also something that leads me to oppose many proposals on here: even if they're something I wouldn't have to use myself, they increase the surface area that I have to know in order to be conversant with Python.
I have no axe to grind here. I want to be informed about arguments for and against.
Sure, understood. I don't particularly have an axe to grind either, since as I said I'm mostly able to ignore type annotations. :-) But there are those lurking problems around the edges that I mentioned. -- Brendan Barnwell "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path, and leave a trail." --author unknown