Python 3.7 and Python 4.03.10 onwards
PEP 563 introduced postponed evaluations, stored in __annotations__ as strings. A user can enable this through the __future__ directive:
from __future__ import annotations
This makes it possible to write:
class C:
a: C
def foo(self, b: C):
...
Starting in Python 3.10 (release planned 2021-10-04), this behaviour will be default.
Edit 2020-11-15: Originally it was announced to be mandatory starting in Python 4.0, but now it appears this will be default already in Python 3.10, which is expected 2021-10-04. This surprises me as it appears to be a violation of the promise in __future__ that this backward compatibility would not be broken until Python 4.0. Maybe the developers consider than 3.10 is 4.0, or maybe they have changed their mind. See also Why did __future__ MandatoryRelease for annotations change between 3.7 and 3.8?.
