Joe Strout wrote: > I'm just re-learning Python after nearly a decade away. I've learned > a good healthy paranoia about my code in that time, and so one thing > I'd like to add to my Python habits is a way to both (a) make intended > types clear to the human reader of the code, in a uniform manner; and > (b) catch any type errors as early and automatically as possible. > > I found the "typecheck" module (http://oakwinter.com/code/typecheck/), > but I notice that it hasn't been updated since 2006, and it's not > included with the Python distribution. Are there other modules > providing similar functionality that I should consider instead? > > Also, I'll probably be considering a lint-like tool at some point... > are there any that allow you to declare some extra type information, > and have that checked at lint time? > > Finally, one thing I've considered is adopting some identifier > prefixes indicating type. Maybe "iFoo" for integer, "fFoo" for > floating-point numbers, "d" for dictionary, "l" for list, "t" for > tuple, "o" for object, and "v" for variable types that may be more > than one of the above. I gather (from just a couple days of browsing) > that such a naming convention isn't common in the Python community, > but is there anyone else here who does it? I'd rather adopt an > existing standard (even if it's not widely used) than make one up.
The short answer is: - don't use typechecks, or at least as few as possible - only for polymorphy. Ducktyping is important for good python code, and shouldn't be prevented by excessive typechecks. - if you don't trust your code, write tests. Actually, *always* write tests. It really helps getting the design of your code better, saves time when refactorings or enhancements are needed - and captures more errors that static typechecking - and your typechecking actually isn't even static & thus you'd need tests to get code coverage anyway. - don't adopt these silly microsoft perversion of hungarian notation. clear, expressive variable names - sure. with pre- or suffixes to indicate their kind, possible. But using iX or fX where all one cares is that X holds a number is not helpful. Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
