Python type hints may not be not for me in practice

Is that a double negative in your title ? Or is it an inside joke I didn't get ?

> yet another Python thing I'd have to try to keep in my mind despite it being months since I used them last.

Typing hints are also a moving target: they have changed, sometimes significantly, on every minor Python release since they came to be.

The `Optional` type came and went (being replaced by the new Union syntax.) Type classes are usually born in the `typing` module, then some of them get moved to `collections`, `abc`, or `collections.abc`. Some types have even been moved several times. `TypeAlias` came and went (replaced by `type`). `List` became `list`. `Tuple` became `tuple`. Forward declarations require a workaround by using string literals. But in Python 3.14, they no longer do, and the workaround will become deprecated.

I'm an evangelist for static type checking, and I never write a Python function signature without complete typing annotations. I also think that typing annotations in Python are evolving in a good way. However, for long-lived Python scripts, I highly recommend that developers are aware of, and factor in, the effort necessary to keep up with the evolution of static typing across Python versions. That effort spent on migrating is going to come on top of the mental load that typing hints already add to your plate.

Program the way you like it and it should be fun.

If you are at work doing professional programming then typing helps avoid bugs and makes programming more of a reliable and robust process.

But doing your own thing, doing little utilities, banging out quick stuff, do exactly what makes you happy.

Programming should be fun not a chore and if types make it a chore for you then drop them.

The logic of type hint is not bad but sadly I think that type hint are making python source code messy and unreadable.

I'm missing a lot simple functions with explicit argument names and docstrings with arguments types and descriptions clearly but discreetly documented.

It was one big strength of Python to have so simple and clean code without too much boilerplate.

Also, I have the feeling that static typing extremist are trying to push the idea that type hinting allows to ensure to not mix types as it would be bad. But from my point of view the polymorphic and typing mixing aspect is a strong force of Python.

Like having dictionaries that are able to hold whatever you want is so incredible when you compare to trying to do the equivalent in Java for example.

One part where I find type hint to be wonderful still is for things like pydantic and dataclasses!

Worst of both worlds is right. I came back to a Python project with a couple of critical but untyped dependencies recently after writing mostly Rust, and to clear up a large number of these (particularly “type is partially unknown”) I had the choice between lots of purely type-checking ceremony (`typing.cast`) or going without.