R
Russ P.
A while back I came across a tentative proposal from way back in 2000
for optional static typing in Python:
http://www.python.org/~guido/static-typing
Two motivations were given:
-- faster code
-- better compile-time error detection
I'd like to suggest a third, which could help extend Python into the
safety-critical domain:
-- facilitates automated source-code analysis
There has been much heated debate in the past about whether Python is
appropriate for safety-critical software. Some argue that, with
thorough testing, Python code can be as reliable as code in any
language. Well, maybe. But then, a famous computer scientist once
remarked that,
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never
to show their absence!" --Edsger Dijkstra
The next step beyond extensive testing is automated, "static" analysis
of source-code ("static" in the sense of analyzing it without actually
running it). For example, Spark Ada is a subset of Ada with
programming by contract, and in some cases it can formally prove the
correctness of a program by static analysis.
Then there is Java Pathfinder (http://javapathfinder.sourceforge.net),
an "explicit state software model checker." The developers of JPF
wanted
to use it on a prototype safety-critical application that I wrote in
Python, but JPF only works on Java code. We considered somehow using
Jython and Jythonc, but neither did the trick. So they ended up having
someone manually convert my Python code to Java! (The problem is that
my code was still in flux, and the Java and Python versions have now
diverged.)
In any case, optional static typing in Python would help tremendously
here. The hardest part of automated conversion of Python to a
statically typed language is the problem of type inference. If the
types are explicitly declared, that problem obviously goes away.
Explicit typing would also greatly facilitate the development of a
"Python Pathfinder," so the conversion would perhaps not even be
necessary in the first place.
Note also that, while "static" type checking would be ideal,
"explicit" typing would be a major step in the right direction and
would probably be much easier to implement. That is, provide a syntax
to explicitly declare types, then just check them at run time. A
relatively simple pre-processor could be implemented to convert the
explicit type declarations into "isinstance" checks or some such
thing. (A pre-processor command-line argument could be provided to
disable the type checks for more efficient production runs if
desired.)
I noticed that Guido has expressed further interest in static typing
three or four years ago on his blog. Does anyone know the current
status of this project? Thanks.
for optional static typing in Python:
http://www.python.org/~guido/static-typing
Two motivations were given:
-- faster code
-- better compile-time error detection
I'd like to suggest a third, which could help extend Python into the
safety-critical domain:
-- facilitates automated source-code analysis
There has been much heated debate in the past about whether Python is
appropriate for safety-critical software. Some argue that, with
thorough testing, Python code can be as reliable as code in any
language. Well, maybe. But then, a famous computer scientist once
remarked that,
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never
to show their absence!" --Edsger Dijkstra
The next step beyond extensive testing is automated, "static" analysis
of source-code ("static" in the sense of analyzing it without actually
running it). For example, Spark Ada is a subset of Ada with
programming by contract, and in some cases it can formally prove the
correctness of a program by static analysis.
Then there is Java Pathfinder (http://javapathfinder.sourceforge.net),
an "explicit state software model checker." The developers of JPF
wanted
to use it on a prototype safety-critical application that I wrote in
Python, but JPF only works on Java code. We considered somehow using
Jython and Jythonc, but neither did the trick. So they ended up having
someone manually convert my Python code to Java! (The problem is that
my code was still in flux, and the Java and Python versions have now
diverged.)
In any case, optional static typing in Python would help tremendously
here. The hardest part of automated conversion of Python to a
statically typed language is the problem of type inference. If the
types are explicitly declared, that problem obviously goes away.
Explicit typing would also greatly facilitate the development of a
"Python Pathfinder," so the conversion would perhaps not even be
necessary in the first place.
Note also that, while "static" type checking would be ideal,
"explicit" typing would be a major step in the right direction and
would probably be much easier to implement. That is, provide a syntax
to explicitly declare types, then just check them at run time. A
relatively simple pre-processor could be implemented to convert the
explicit type declarations into "isinstance" checks or some such
thing. (A pre-processor command-line argument could be provided to
disable the type checks for more efficient production runs if
desired.)
I noticed that Guido has expressed further interest in static typing
three or four years ago on his blog. Does anyone know the current
status of this project? Thanks.
