Tuesday 2 July 2013

Mypy Switches to Python-Compatible Syntax

Mypy now has a Python-compatible syntax! The implementation is already self-hosting, but it should still be considered very experimental. This is a huge change which touched almost every source code file in the repository, and there are still many unfixed bugs.

Here is small example of the new syntax:

  import typing

  def fib(n: int) -> None:
      a, b = 0, 1
      while a < n:
          print(a)
          a, b = b, a+b

I have mostly updated the web site and documentation to reflect the new syntax. The Mypy Tutorial (formerly Mypy Overview) is largely rewritten:

http://www.mypy-lang.org/tutorial.html

The update also adds more content to the tutorial that isn't directly related to the syntax switch.

Since the mypy implementation is now a valid Python 3 program, there is no need for a translation step before running it. Thus also the old mypy-py repository is no longer needed to run mypy. Instead, mypy now uses the standard Python setup.py mechanism for installation. Have a look at the updated README for details:

https://github.com/JukkaL/mypy/blob/master/README.md

I have updated the example programs on the web site:

http://www.mypy-lang.org/examples.html

I also updated the mypy roadmap:

http://www.mypy-lang.org/roadmap.html

If you are thirsty for more code to look at, point your browser at the git repository:

From now on, the old syntax is considered legacy and will not be supported by the implementation. There will be a tool for migrating mypy code written using the old syntax to the new syntax. The tool is already functional, but it still needs a bit if polish before it's generally useful. I will notify when it's available on this blog. I'll also write a longer blog post discussing the new syntax in more detail at a later date.

Any feedback is appreciated! The syntax is still work in progress, and improvements are possible.

Many thanks to Guido van Rossum, Sebastian Riikonen and Ron Murawski for ideas and comments.