[Types-sig] Re: RFC 0.1

[Guido van Rossum]

[Paul Prescod]
> If I were Guido I would be unwilling to instruct every standard
> library package maintainer to supply all type declarations in order
> to please the minority who want to use Python in a manner that is as
> restrictive as Java.

Don't assume that!  I think that for standard library modules (either
in Python or in C), having the types can be a great boon -- it acts as
documentation, guidelines for future API evolution, etc.  Well worth
having.  Probably will catch some bugs in contributed code too! :-)

> Not just declarations: someone needs to actually define the set of
> "standard interfaces." There are probably a few weeks worth of work
> there and even a few weeks of work are hard to find since we all have
> other jobs.

This can be done incrementally, like the documentation got done.

> > How about a declaration syntax, e.g.,
> > 
> >     var x : type1, y : type2
> > 
> > Is this prohibited by the RFC?
> 
> Yes, but I may change my mind on this issue based on Guido's feedback.

Feedback: I think adding type declarations is too important to be
crippled by a "no new keywords, no new syntax" rule.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)