Add Type Hint for win32api.GetLastError

[songyuc]

Hello,
When using PyCharm for development, the method win32api.GetLastError does not have an associated type hint in the win32api.pyi file. This absence leads to the following warning in PyCharm:

Cannot find reference 'GetLastError' in 'win32api.pyi'

This makes it difficult to utilize autocomplete and type checking features effectively.

Suggested Solution

Add a type hint for the GetLastError method in the win32api.pyi file to enhance IDE support and improve the development experience. The type hint should specify that GetLastError returns an integer.

# win32api.pyi
def GetLastError() -> int: ...

Additional Information

• pywin32 version: 308
• Development Environment: PyCharm 2024.3.1.1

Benefits

• Improved IDE support with accurate autocomplete and type checking.
• Enhanced developer experience by reducing misleading warnings in the code editor.

Thank you for maintaining the pywin32 library and for considering this enhancement!

[mhammond]

There are no .pyi files in the repo.

[songyuc]

Thank you for the response. I am a student new to type-hints and .pyi files. I'm interested in learning how to add type hint support. Would you be open to accepting a PR for adding type hints? If so, do you have any specific guidelines or preferences for how you'd like to see type hints implemented in the project?

[Avasam]

Hello @songyuc . Type stubs for pywin32 are handled as third-party stubs in https://github.com/python/typeshed/tree/main/stubs/pywin32 . Feel free to re-open your issue there.

I opened #2469 to hopefully help direct users of type annotations to the proper resources.

accepting a PR for adding type hints

That is an absolute massive undertaking that I've been working on over the past 2 years now. pywin32 has some inline type annotations, and basic (but not great) static type-checking coverage of its own usage.
Mark H. has previously mentioned not wanting to add a bunch of stub files to pywin32 #1913 (comment) . Understandably so as it's only extra maintenance for him to keep synchronized.

What's most likely to happen, and my current plan, is that most pure-python modules in pywin32 get annotated. And c-extensions stay delegated to typeshed (third party stubs can be marked as partial for that exact purpose). Maybe in the very long term a C-to-pyi generator could be used. (something like this using SWIG swig/swig#735, or a tool like stubgen)
Here you can find in-progress PRs: https://github.com/mhammond/pywin32/pulls?q=sort%3Aupdated-desc+is%3Apr+is%3Aopen+mypy+OR+pyright