syntax difference (type hints)

[Chris Angelico]

On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 12:57 AM, Schachner, Joseph
<Joseph.Schachner at teledyne.com> wrote:
> Assuming that we want Python to remain a dynamically typed (but strongly typed) language, I believe the proposed type hints are only necessary for function definitions, where the caller really needs to know the types of arguments to pass in.   At the moment that purpose is (I think adequately) served by def strings, triple quoted strings immediately following the function declaration.  When I do code reviews for Python developed here, if the argument names of a function do not hint at the type they should be and there is no def string then I insist that something be added.  Often what gets added is a def string that says something about what the function does and explains what argument types are expected.
>

(The official term is "docstring", and you can find some specifics on
them in PEP 257.)

What you're doing is all very well, but it isn't very
machine-readable. Type hints as defined in PEP 3107 and 484 are
designed to be understood by linters and autocompletion tools and the
like. And once you have the machine-readable, you should be able to
leave off any type information in the purely-human-readable parts of
documentation.

ChrisA