data-apis · rgommers · Oct 30, 2020 · Oct 28, 2020 · Oct 30, 2020
diff --git a/spec/API_specification/array_object.md b/spec/API_specification/array_object.md
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
+.. array-object:
+
 # Array object
diff --git a/spec/API_specification/function_and_method_signatures.md b/spec/API_specification/function_and_method_signatures.md
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+.. _function-and-method-signatures:
+
 # Function and method signatures
 
 Function signatures in this standard adhere to the following:

diff --git a/spec/design_topics/static_typing.md b/spec/design_topics/static_typing.md
@@ -1 +1,48 @@
 # Static typing
+
+Good support for static typing both in array libraries and array-consuming
+code is desirable. Therefore the exact type or set of types for each
+parameter, keyword and return value is specified for functions and methods -
+see :ref:`function-and-method-signatures`. That section specifies arrays
+simply as `array`; what that means is dealt with in this section.
+
+Introducing type annotations in libraries became more relevant only when
+Python 2.7 support was dropped at the start of 2020. As a consequence, using
+type annotations with array libraries is largely still a work in progress.
+This version of the API standard does not deal with trying to type _array
+properties_ like shape, dimensionality or dtype, because that's not a solved
+problem in individual array libraries yet.
+
+An `array` type annotation can mean either the type of one specific array
+object, or some superclass or typing Protocol - as long as it is consistent
+with the array object specified in :ref:`array-object`. To illustrate by
+example:
+
+```python
+# `Array` is a particular class in the library
+def sin(x: Array, / ...) -> Array:
+    ...
+```
+
+and 
+
+```python
+# There's some base class `_BaseArray`, and there may be multiple
+# array subclasses inside the library
+A = TypeVar('A', bound=_BaseArray)
+def sin(x: A, / ...) -> A:
+    ...
+```
+should both be fine. There may be other variations possible. Also note that
+this standard does not require that input and output array types are the same
+(they're expected to be defined in the same library though). Given that
+array libraries don't have to be aware of other types of arrays defined in
+other libraries (see :ref:`assumptions-dependencies`), this should be enough
+for a single array library.
+
+That said, an array-consuming library aiming to support multiple array types
+may need more - for example a protocol to enable structural subtyping. This
+API standard currently takes the position that it does not provide any
+reference implementation or package that can or should be relied on at
+runtime, hence no such protocol is defined here. This may be dealt with in a
+future version of this standard.