Python

Google Ends Support for Pytype: This is How Python Developers Can Adapt

And what it says about the evolution of Python typing.

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After years of maintaining Pytype, Google has officially announced that it is sunsetting the project, and the last supported Python version is 3.12.

As an ambitious type-checking tool for Python, Pytype was popular, especially when Python’s type hints syntax wasn’t comprehensive enough.

While the news might not come as a surprise given the rapid evolution of Python typing tools, it does raise important questions about the ecosystem and the direction of type checking in Python. As Python developers, we should adapt to the rapid changes to enhance our skills.

This article will help you understand what this move means and how it will affect you.

What Was Pytype?

Pytype was Google’s in-house tool developed since 2012. As a handy type analysis tool, Pytype could:

• Infer types without explicit type hints.
• Detect type errors across large codebases.
• Generate type stubs for libraries lacking type information.
• Provide flexible integration for teams with legacy Python code.