[HN Gopher] Why Today's Python Developers Are Embracing Type Hints
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       Why Today's Python Developers Are Embracing Type Hints
        
       Author : ocamoss
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2025-09-24 11:23 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (pyrefly.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (pyrefly.org)
        
       | LoganDark wrote:
       | I think I've always used Python type hints, but that was
       | partially because early versions of Discord.py relied on them
       | (maybe it still does). But it was also because I like to be able
       | to mentally verify my code's correctness before running it, and
       | waiting for runtime errors is comparatively a huge waste of time
       | (in my opinion).
        
       | secondcoming wrote:
       | I recently had to debug someone else's Python code and trying to
       | figure out what variables are was a massive headache, especially
       | coming from C++.
        
         | skydhash wrote:
         | I do not program that much in python, but I believe the general
         | accepted wisdom in dynamic languages was explicit name and load
         | of documentations (as comments and docstrings).
        
           | imron wrote:
           | Absolutely the general accepted wisdom in line with best
           | practices - that are often ignored
        
       | lacker wrote:
       | Type hints are much easier to use nowadays than they were a few
       | years ago, because the agentic tools like Claude Code are very
       | good at converting an existing codebase to using type hints.
        
         | OutOfHere wrote:
         | The flip side of it is that Claude Code will have a very bad
         | time in a code base with grossly unsatisfiable or conflicting
         | types (where a type checker would fail the project). A human
         | should always first ensure that the types are broadly correct,
         | with or without the assistance of code tools.
        
       | imron wrote:
       | I enforce strong types on all Python code I'm responsible for -
       | and make sure others don't play fast and loose with dict[str,
       | Any] when they could use a well defined type.
       | 
       | Doing otherwise is just asking for prod incidents.
        
         | scuff3d wrote:
         | I worked on a project that did this. Drove me absolutely nuts.
         | It's like having all the worst parts of a dynamic language and
         | a static language with none of the benefits.
         | 
         | I'd much rather just work in a statically typed language from
         | the start.
        
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       (page generated 2025-09-27 23:00 UTC)