Type hints in Python add a great amount of visual noise to the code, and I actively avoid them wherever possible. If static typing is a must, use a language where static typing is not an afterthought, and let Python be Python.
Python developers are embracing type hints
181–190 of 581 posts
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#182I know I am going to be in the minority, but I don't understand why we can't let Python be Python. Static typing is great, and there are already other statically typed languages for all your needs. Why not use them? Well, at least it doesn't create two incompatible Pythons like async and (I assume) free threading.
I sometimes felt that Python was rather strong in many parts of typing. As such being able to track what type of something is would often have been useful. Instead of waiting it to crash to some error.
Like back in 2.7 difference between byte-array and string... Offloading such cases is mentally useful.
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#183I really love Python for it's expedience, but type hints still feel like they don't belong in the language. They don't seem to come with the benefits of optimisation that you get with static typed languages. As someone who uses C and Julia (and wishes they had time for Rust), introducing solid typing yields better end results at a minimum, or is a requirement at the other end of the scale. The extra typing clarificat…
> They don't seem to come with the benefits of optimisation that you get with static typed languages They don't. And cannot, for compatibility reasons. Aside from setting some dunders on certain objects (which are entirely irrelevant unless you're doing some crazy metaprogramming thing), type annotations have no effect on the code at runtime. The Python runtime will happily bytecode-compile and execute code with inco…
Now that python has a jit it could use them (not saying it should) for speculative compilation
My understanding is that currently python can collect type data in test runs and use it to inform the jit during following executions
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
People adapt to the circumstances. A lot of Python uses are no longer about fast iteration on the REPL. Instead of that we are shipping Python to execute in clusters on very long running jobs or inside servers. It's not only about having to start all over after hours, it's simply that concurrent and distributed execution environments are hostile to interactive programming. Now you can't afford to wait for an exceptio…
Here we are because: * Types are expensive and dont tend to pay off on spikey/experimental/MVP code, most of which gets thrown away. * Types are incredibly valuable on hardened production code. * Most good production code started out spikey, experimental or as an MVP and transitioned . And so here we are with gradual typing because "throwing away all the code and rewriting it to be "perfect" in another language" has…
> * Types are expensive and dont tend to pay off on spikey/experimental/MVP code, most of which gets thrown away.
Press "X" to doubt. Types help _a_ _lot_ by providing autocomplete, inspections, and helping with finding errors while you're typing.
This significantly improves the iteration speed, as you don't need to run the code to detect that you mistyped a varible somewhere.
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#185As a static typing advocate I do find it funny how all the popular dynamic languages have slowly become statically typed. After decades of people saying it's not at all necessary and being so critical of statically typed languages. When I was working on a fairly large TypeScript project it became the norm for dependencies to have type definitions in a relatively short space of time.
What I would need is a statically typed language that has first class primitives for working with untyped data ergonomically.
I do want to be able to write a dynamically typed function or subsystem during the development phase, and „harden” with types once I’m sure I got the structure down.
But the dynamic system should fit well into the language, and I should be able to easily and safely deal with untyped values and convert them to typed ones.
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#186As a static typing advocate I do find it funny how all the popular dynamic languages have slowly become statically typed. After decades of people saying it's not at all necessary and being so critical of statically typed languages. When I was working on a fairly large TypeScript project it became the norm for dependencies to have type definitions in a relatively short space of time.
What I would need is a statically typed language that has first class primitives for working with untyped data ergonomically. I do want to be able to write a dynamically typed function or subsystem during the development phase, and „harden” with types once I’m sure I got the structure down. But the dynamic system should fit well into the language, and I should be able to easily and safely deal with untyped values and…
So… Typescript?
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#187in general I see two types of Python in the wild:
- simple self-contained scripts, everything is a free function, no type hints
- over-engineered hierarchies of classes spread over dozens of files and modules, type hints everywhere
I personally largely prefer the first kind, but it seems even the standard formatting rules are against it (two empty lines between free functions etc.)
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#188As a static typing advocate I do find it funny how all the popular dynamic languages have slowly become statically typed. After decades of people saying it's not at all necessary and being so critical of statically typed languages. When I was working on a fairly large TypeScript project it became the norm for dependencies to have type definitions in a relatively short space of time.
Thing is, famous dynamic languages of the past, Common Lisp, BASIC, Clipper, FoxPro, all got type hints for a reason, then came a new generation of scripting languages made application languages, and everyone had to relearn why the fence was in the middle of the field.
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#189Isn't this a very 2018-2019 topic? I don't get the motivation to write about it in 2025, it's like telling people to use version control.
Re: Python developers are embracing type hints
#190Type hints in Python add a great amount of visual noise to the code, and I actively avoid them wherever possible. If static typing is a must, use a language where static typing is not an afterthought, and let Python be Python.
I guess one man's noise is another man's treasure :P