"Bill Page" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: | On November 20, 2005 10:16 PM Tim Daly (root) wrote: | | > | > Two comments. Lisp IS strongly typed. It just associates the type | > with the object and not with the box (variable) it comes in. That | > is, it distinguishes a TV from the box labelled TV as the type is | > related to the object and not the box. Other "strongly-typed" | > languages don't so once you say a box (variable) is a TV box you | > can't put anything else in it. You can spot a Box-Typed language | > because it forces you to coerce your entertainment center to a TV | > to put it into a TV box. Exactly why you would want to consider | > the TV and the box it came in to have any fixed relationship is | > beyond most lispers. | | I think this is a great analogy! :-) In technical jargon we | would translate "box-typed language" to statically typed.
It it a good analogy; but it is just that: An analogy. Many statically typed languages do make the distinction between the box and what-is-in-the-box: They call the former a "Variable" and the later an "object", so they don't confuse the TV box with the TV. Furthremore, if one translates "box-typed language" to statically typed language, then I think one makes a fundamental mistake of confusing "strong typing" with "static typing". -- Gaby _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer
