NoReturn and Never are underspecified in the spec
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Description
Never was added without a PEP as a way to directly indicate that something is uninhabited in 3.11
This brings up something from https://github.com/CarliJoy/intersection_examples/issues/5#issuecomment-1699490563 where we now have a way to express what appears to be an LSP violation that type checks (incorrectly) properly via structural subtyping by mishandling Never as a subtype of other types. Never is not a subtype of all other types. As the bottom type, it is uninhabited and does not follow subtyping rules.
from typing import Never
class A:
def foo(self, x: int) -> None: ...
class B(A):
foo: Never # __getattr__(B, "foo") -> raise NotImplementedError
x: A = B() # type checks
reveal_type(B.foo)
https://mypy-play.net/?mypy=latest&python=3.11&flags=strict&gist=a4279b36d82c1a28d7b17be9a4bbcbdf
I believe under LSP, B is no longer a safe drop-in replacement for A. It's important to note that ongoing work to formalize the type system, including Never does not treat Never as a subtype of all other types, see the ongoing work here: http://bit.ly/python-subtyping
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- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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Research direction
Start with the Never example in this issue and review the linked subtyping discussion and ongoing Python typing formalization work. Done means reaching and documenting a clear specification for Never and NoReturn, including their interaction with structural subtyping and the LSP case described here.
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Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- documentation
- Issue type
- Documentation
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100