[Types-sig] Re: RFC 0.1
Guido van Rossum
guido@CNRI.Reston.VA.US
Tue, 14 Dec 1999 10:58:44 -0500
[Paul Prescod]
> If I were Guido I would be unwilling to instruct every standard
> library package maintainer to supply all type declarations in order
> to please the minority who want to use Python in a manner that is as
> restrictive as Java.
Don't assume that! I think that for standard library modules (either
in Python or in C), having the types can be a great boon -- it acts as
documentation, guidelines for future API evolution, etc. Well worth
having. Probably will catch some bugs in contributed code too! :-)
> Not just declarations: someone needs to actually define the set of
> "standard interfaces." There are probably a few weeks worth of work
> there and even a few weeks of work are hard to find since we all have
> other jobs.
This can be done incrementally, like the documentation got done.
> > How about a declaration syntax, e.g.,
> >
> > var x : type1, y : type2
> >
> > Is this prohibited by the RFC?
>
> Yes, but I may change my mind on this issue based on Guido's feedback.
Feedback: I think adding type declarations is too important to be
crippled by a "no new keywords, no new syntax" rule.
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)