lint for Python?

[bearophileHUGS at lycos.com]

Pat:

I know about 3 different lints for Python, there's PyFlake too. But I
don't know if it does what you want.


> I've never used a language that didn't catch that type of error.

What dynamic languages have you used in the past?


> I'm quite surprised that Python is being used by a number of major
> companies.  How you catch these types of errors?

Writing tests. You must adapt your coding style to the language you
use.
In Java/C++ your static type system catches those bugs for you, in
dynamic languages you have to catch them with testing (or lints, if
they are present). Languages like Haskell with a type system much
stronger than Java/C++ ones help you catch even more bugs/problems at
compile time, so you need more time to have a clean compilation, but
you have less bugs later (but tests are useful in Haskell too, see
QuickCheck, that has inspired lot of similar tools for other
languages, Python included).

Bye,
bearophile