What variable type is returned from Open()?

[dcwhatthe at gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 9:46:30 PM UTC-4, Michael Torrie wrote:
> On 4/15/20 5:47 PM, dcwh wrote:
> > So in the case of Python, whenever the type information is available,
> > I want to make it explicit rather than inferred.  Whether the A.I. is
> > running a simulation of the software in an IDE, or analyzing them as
> > text documents, they should be able to glean as much as possible.
> > They should also be able to infer the type, via a Hungarian syntax
> > variation.
> 
> Hungarian syntax is definitely an acquired taste, and better suited to
> statically-typed languages.
> 
> In this specific case of dealing with open(), keep in mind that most
> things that work with files (including something like, for example,
> csvreader) only require a file-like object. That can be something that
> open() returns, or some other object that implements the semantics. This
> is important because anything that can work with files can also work
> with any other implementation, provided it speaks the same protocol.
> For example you could feed it a stream from a zip archive.  Or a network
> stream. Or something else of your own design.  No need for "interface"
> classes (although Zope does implement and use them for some reason), or
> a special class hierarchy.
> 
> In my opinion, the first line of documentation should be decent
> docstrings that document the parameters and return values for functions.
> I can think of some cases when type hinting would be desired and
> recommended.  But storing the result of open() isn't one of them.

Thanks DL Neil, Michael Torrie ; and especially Random832 & Souvik Dutta.  Although my coding style is still evolving, I'm already clear on how I personally want to name variables, and the question of clarifying their type.  

The Docstring of course is the first line of defense, but there's still something missing that I haven't fully worked out yet, regarding the purpose of analyzing the code by an artificial entity.

Maybe a json or edn file with the same base filename as the source file, which contains details about the intent of the module.

Whatever ; it'll take time to brainstorm something.  Nevertheless, thanks for answering the question that was actually asked, which was the type of variable returned from an Open() statement.