Adding static typing to Python

[Daniel Klein]

Let me reverse the question: What do you think the response would be if Sun
was asked to drop static type checking (as well as checked exceptions).

When you can answer this, then you'll have _your_ answer.

Daniel Klein


On 18 Feb 2002 15:31:47 -0800, ajeru at vknn.org (Alexander Jerusalem) wrote:

>Has anyone heard of plans to add static type checking to Python? I
>like Python very much but I don't use it for bigger projects because I
>fear the testing effort. For example I just refactored a rather large
>Java codebase. And when I change a method name for example, all I have
>to do is run everything thru the compiler and it will show me all
>places in other classes where this method is called, so I can go there
>and chenge the method call as well.
>
>In Python I'd have to test the whole software suite including each and
>every branch in each and every if statement to be sure that I didn't
>forget something. To build such a test suite would take almost as long
>as it takes to build the whole software and I'd have to maintain the
>test suite as well. That's just unafordable.
>
>On the other hand, Python is the best language that currently exists
>and I would like to use it on bigger projects not just for prototyping
>as some suggest.
>
>Regards,
>Alexander Jerusalem