How often do your prototypes or scripts turn into full applications? The simplicity of code growth can lead to maintenance issues, particularly with dicts as primary data structures. Modern Python offers alternatives to plain dicts, which can be problematic. Dicts create challenges in extending functions and manipulating data, leading to tech debt. To address this, treat dicts as “wire format” data and convert them into meaningful structures. Use tools like dataclasses or Pydantic to streamline model creation. Annotate dicts as TypedDict or mappings for more control and efficient development. Don’t let dicts rule your application; implement proper data structures early to avoid complexity later on.
https://roman.pt/posts/dont-let-dicts-spoil-your-code/