Hey everyone,
I'm excited to announce that a new version of nectarengine, v0.1.0, has been released and is now available on PyPI!
This isn't just a minor bugfix; it's a significant step forward for the library. The main feature of this release is that the entire codebase is now fully typed with Python type hints.
Why is This Important?
For those who might not be familiar with type hints, you might be wondering what this means and why it matters. In short, it makes the library more robust, easier to use for other developers, and easier for me to maintain.
Here's a quick breakdown of the benefits:
- Improved Code Clarity: Type hints act as a form of documentation right in the code. When you look at a function signature, you know exactly what kind of data it expects (e.g., a
string, aninteger, alist) and what kind of data it will return. This removes a lot of guesswork. - Better Developer Tools: Modern code editors like VS Code use these hints to provide much smarter autocompletion, real-time error checking, and helpful suggestions as you write your own code using the library. This makes development faster and less error-prone.
- Early Bug Detection: Before the code is even run, static analysis tools can check for type-related errors. For example, it can catch a bug where you might accidentally pass a string to a function that is expecting a number. Finding these issues early leads to more reliable software.
The Process and What's Next
Going through and adding type hints to every part of the library was a significant undertaking, but it's an important investment in the long-term health and usability of the project.
I started with nectarengine because it's the smaller of my two main Hive libraries. Now that it's complete, my next major task will be to bring this same level of typing to its bigger sibling, hive-nectar.
A Call for Testers!
This is a big change under the hood. While it should make the library more reliable, there's always a chance that new issues could have been introduced. I would be very grateful if everyone who uses nectarengine could test out this new version.
You can upgrade to the latest version via pip:
pip install nectarengine --upgrade
Please test it with your scripts and let me know if you run into anything that is not working as expected. You can report any issues on the project's GitHub repository.
Thank you for your support!
As always,
Michael Garcia a.k.a. TheCrazyGM