this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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Any decent IDE would give you an error for unresolved attribute. Likewise it would warn you of type error if the type of
x.whateverdidn't match the return type offoo()You're both right. It's possible to write code that gets linted well in Python, yes, but you're often not working with just your code. If a library doesn't use typing properly, not a lot to be done without a ton more effort.
Yes because you used static type annotations. This thread was about code that doesn't use static types (or static type annotations/hints).
Nope, don't need to. WebStorm can even detect nonexistent attributes for objects whose format the back-end decides, and tbh I'm not sure what sort of sorcery it uses.
Yeah IntelliJ does amazingly without type annotations but even it can't do everything. E.g. if you're using libraries without type annotations, or if you don't call functions with every possible type (is your testing that good? No.)
Static types have other benefits anyway so you should use them even if everyone in your team uses IntelliJ.
Yeah, our company has been meaning to transition to them for a while. I started saying Jsdoc comments but people complained about the pollution. Then I said fine, we'll do TypeScript one day instead.
That one day has yet to come. I don't actually get to decide much at this company, after all. Aah, technical debt.
I've never done it but apparently you can actually gradually transition to Typescript one file at a time by renaming them from
.jsto.ts. Might help a bit. Good luck anyway!Python doesn't check the types of function headers though. They're only hints for the programmer.
OP suggested that linters for python won't catch attribute errors, which they 100% will if you use type hints, as you should.
What happens at runtime is really relevant in this case.
Linters 100% won't. A static type checker is not a linter.
I don't want to get into an Internet argument over pedantry. Linter is often used as a catch-all term for static analysis tools.
Wikipedia defines it as
Catching type errors and attribute errors would fit under this description, if you use a different, more precise definition at your workplace, cool, then we just have different definitions for it. The point is that your IDE should automatically detect the errors regardless of what you call it.
In common usage a linter detects code that is legal but likely a mistake, or code that doesn't follow best practice.
Although static type checkers do fit in that definition, that definition is overly broad and they would not be called a "linter".
Here is how static type checkers describe themselves:
Here is how linters describe themselves:
(Ok I guess it's a bit redundant for Pylint to say it is a linter.)
You get the idea... Linters are heuristic and advisory. Quite different to static type checking.