[Python-Dev] Type hints -- a mediocre programmer's reaction

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 03:25:30PM +0100, Harry Percival wrote:
> lol @ the fact that the type hints are breaking github's syntax highlighter
> :)

That just tells us that Github's syntax highlighter has been broken for 
over five years. Function annotations go back to Python 3.0, more than 
five years ago. The only thing which is new about type hinting is that 
we're adding a standard *use* for those annotations.

I just tested a version of kwrite from 2005, ten years old, and it 
highlights the following annotated function perfectly:

def func(a:str='hello', b:int=int(x+1)) -> None:
    print(a + b)


Of course, I'm hoping that any decent type checker won't need the type 
hints. It should be able to infer from the default values that a is a 
string and b an int, and only require a type hint if you want to accept 
other types as well.

(It should also highlight that a+b cannot succeed.)


-- 
Steve