Build a Streaming Messaging Helper in Python

from collections import deque
from dataclasses import dataclass
from datetime import datetime
import time


@dataclass
class Message:
    user: str
    text: str
    timestamp: str = ""

    def __post_init__(self):
        if not self.timestamp:
            self.timestamp = datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S")


class MessageStream:
    def __init__(self, max_size=5):
        self._messages = deque(maxlen=max_size)

    def send(self, user: str, text: str) -> Message:
        message = Message(user=user, text=text)
        self._messages.append(message)
        return message

    def latest(self, count=1):
        recent = list(self._messages)[-count:]
        return recent[::-1]

    def history(self):
        return list(self._messages)

    def __len__(self):
        return len(self._messages)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    stream = MessageStream(max_size=5)
    stream.send("alice", "hello there")
    time.sleep(0.5)
    stream.send("bob", "hi alice!")
    stream.send("alice", "how are you?")
    print("All messages:", stream.history())
    print("Latest 2:", stream.latest(2))