Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ruby and Python are also mainstream, and both provide saner OOP. C++ templates at least have a purpose and provide extra benefits (e.g. performance, compile-time computations for pre-caching). In Java generics are practically implicit type-casts and nothing else. About verbosity ... clear conventions are a lot more effective for readability and learning. In a dynamic language like Ruby / Python, if you don't know wha…
There, problem solved. The problem isn't solved. You now know what the type is for that particular moment . What you don't know are the invariants of the don_t_know_the_return_type() function. What types/subtypes is can return, whether it can return None, what exceptions it can throw, and whether those will change in the future. That information can only come from a type system and/or documentation. Simply reading th…
int n = func_that_returns_positive_even_number()
def func_that_returns_positive_even_number():
"""Returns positive even number."""
Or if you're paranoid and that function can totally break your code:
n = func_that_returns_positive_even_number()
assert isinstance(n, int) and n % 2 == 0 and n >= 0
import unittest
class TestMyFunc(unittest.TestCase):
def test_is_positive_and_even(self):
n = func_that_returns_positive_even_number()
self.assertTrue( n % 2 == 0 and n >= 0 )