Investigate strong typing for REST API payloads and responses

[t1m0thyj]

Perhaps we can use some new Python features like type hints (in 3.5) and dataclasses (in 3.7).

Some examples of where this would be nice:

• The options dictionary for create_data_set in the zos-files SDK
• The response object returned by submit_job in the zos-jobs SDK

[deadaf]

Hello @t1m0thyj

This would certainly improve the codebase's readability and working with the packages easier. I'm interested in working on this and adding type hints wherever applicable.

Before I proceed, I wanted to check if there are any specific guidelines or conventions for adding type hints in the project. Additionally, I would appreciate any guidance or considerations you might have regarding the use of type hints and dataclasses.

Please let me know your thoughts on this, and if there's anything specific I should keep in mind while working on this issue. Thank you!

[t1m0thyj]

For return types, we want simple dataclasses that support both dot notation (e.g. obj.property) and bracket notation (e.g. obj["property"]) to combine the features of namespaces and dictionaries with type hints.

Here is an example from ChatGPT:

from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from typing import Any


@dataclass
class ExtendedDataClass:
    attribute1: str = field(default="")
    attribute2: int = field(default=0)

    def __getitem__(self, key: str) -> Any:
        return self.__dict__[key]

    def __setitem__(self, key: str, value: Any) -> None:
        self.__dict__[key] = value


# Example usage
obj = ExtendedDataClass(attribute1="value1", attribute2=42)

# Accessing attributes
print(obj.attribute1)  # Using dot notation
print(obj["attribute1"])  # Using bracket notation

# Setting attributes
obj.attribute1 = "new_value1"  # Using dot notation
obj["attribute2"] = 84  # Using bracket notation

print(obj.attribute1)
print(obj.attribute2)