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Comment by peterashford | Hacker News Reader

Optional type hints are not the same at all.

No, its better. You can build the code first, test that it functions as expected, then add types, then compile it.

This is miles ahead of having to struggle with getting types correct in C++ before you even have anything resembling a workable solution.

I don't disagree but I wish Python had builtin support for runtime type checking. I've thought about switching to Go or Rust for certain projects but Python's rich ecosystem makes it hard for me to switch, so for now I long for runtime type checking without needing an external library (e.g typeguard).

Very much agree. It's one thing I really appreciated about how php added type annotations. You didn't need them but once you added them they became a gaurantee.

You can configure vscode to fail on typing problems and it will show errors in your editor

So that's an IDE feature rather than a language level feature

Nope, that's a language level feature. Your code will also fail at runtime. The IDE is just turning it on.

I don't think that's how it works. Unless you install a library like typeguard python doesn't do runtime type validation

You can check types at runtime in python. You can even check values at runtime. Heck you can check the weather at runtime if you like. What’s the problem exactly?

I don’t get the struggle with types people have. It’s not hard to use a knife instead of a hammer to cut stuff. What’s the struggle with types, specifically?

Try teaching c++ to a new programmer and you’ll understand the struggles people have with types.

You might have forgotten, but you had head scratchers too when you where learning. Everyone has them. I’ve taught people who are absolute geniuses, even they struggled initially. And sure you get over it, just like people can become quite adapt at programming in esoteric languages like brainfuck, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any better ways.

Yea types are hard, but I think to write quality software types are really important, almost necessary. I guess starting in a foundation where types are minimal like Python would be good for learning, then adding static typing is just a level of abstraction above that. We have to learn programming gradually though abstractions anyways, so I don’t see a problem there.

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