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0 pointswar10256y ago0 comments

Not dynamic typing's fault.

The issue is they changed the types out from underneath you.

And then left it to each library to decide which type it was actually going to accept.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

magicalhippo6y ago· 2 in thread

But with static typing, the compiler can let you know when you're doing something wrong with the new Unicode-based string.

war1025OP6y ago

Well, it can, except you then need to go through and update all of your internal APIs to be correct.

Really the string transition was just a poor choice in my opinion. Python2 already had unicode strings that were easy enough to specify (just prefix with a `u`).

It would have been better to just delineate that barrier better from an API standpoint.

I understand the appeal of having unicode for the default string literal type, but it was actively hostile to existing projects.

lmm6y ago

> Well, it can, except you then need to go through and update all of your internal APIs to be correct.

You do, but it's easy: run a compile, fix the errors, repeat until no more errors.

> It would have been better to just delineate that barrier better from an API standpoint.

Isn't that exactly what the Python 3 transition was? i.e. stop accepting non-unicode "strings" (actually just arbitrary byte sequences) for APIs that semantically require a string, reserve them for APIs that actually want a byte sequence.

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