← Back to context

Comment by worthless-trash

21 hours ago

I was under the impression that the point of strict types was that the code wouldnt compile/run with wrong type information.

This _is_ how strict types work. Problems creep in when people introduce lax types into the strict type system.

dict[str, Any] is a type, and sometimes it is the right type to specify, but most of the time it's used by someone who wants to shut up the type checker rather than think about the right type.

  • It is very hard to work with developers who see the type system as a nuisance to overcome.

    And in software problems like that tend to compound. It’s hard to imagine how much badly written, poorly performing software there is out there.

    The opportunity to do better with AI is monumental; comes with its own problems no doubt, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

  • In my case it's actually that there was no type annotation for the first N years of the project (long before I joined) and a couple people started using them in advisory mode but with no enforcement.

    Just a huge mess. One reason I'm not a big fan of python for large projects.