Re: Should I use type hints for all new code?
Alan Gauld via Tutor <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.python.tutor |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On 25/08/2023 15:03, Simon Connah via Tutor wrote: > I'm wondering if I should use type hints for new code. I'm probably in a minority here but I avoid type hints and dislike them intensely. I spent a large part of my professional life as a maintenance programmer on statically typed languages(mainly Pascal ad C/C++) And static typing resulted in probably the second biggest cause of bugs after uninitialised pointers. It's not the typing per se but the resultant need for (often unnecessary) type conversions to conform to the types. And type conversions are a huge potential source of errors (and usually intermittent and very hard to find!). I think type hints go completely against the principles of dynamic typing (of which I'm a big fan). Thankfully, in Python they are only a hint and can be safely ignored, although I'm dreading the day somebody decides to make the interpreter pay heed to them! I know that goes against the orthodoxy and certainly what I was taught in school. But in the real world I find static typing to be more of a problem than a help. Embrace dynamic typing. If it acts like a duck it is a duck. -- Alan G Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor