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by James Robertson.
Original Post: Suggested projects
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Ted Leung has a suggested Python project - creating an automated type annotater for Python programs - the stated goal being to provide a tool that could be used on Python files to give some confidence that type unsafe operations were not going to happen. IMHO, there's a better goal for that kind of thing, and it's something we see the need for in Smalltalk - communication with external systems. Whether we think it's a good idea or not, the majority of the non-Smalltalk development world is manifestly typed. In particular, the popular RPC mechanisms - CORBA, SOAP, RMI, DCOM - all expect manifest type information. What that means for a Smalltalker (or Python developer) is a need to annotate the interface - IDL, WSDL, etc. Having something that reliably inferred types for the purpose of generating those interop specs would be highly useful - and, IMHO, far more valuable than any other output. A good set of tests proves more about correctness IMHO.
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