The answer is that they just don't care. If it appears to work then it works. If it fails later on different input then we'll fix it. YAGNI. Proof and test are so closely-related in our heads that in a number of spoken languages there's one word for both concepts.
Any type system will reject some programs that would never fail, e.g., int a = currentYear < 1950 ? 2.5 : 3; That's a silly example but there are cases where it seems the type system just wants to annoy you, if you neither understand nor care how types work. There's always more and more research done into type systems.. How far can we go in finding errors statically while not requiring too many hints from the programmer and while being able to finish in a reasonable amount of time? If you believe a type system only catches trivial problems, that's likely what you'll observe. If you take care to give the type system the information it needs (e.g., using a Color type instead of an int) it will help you out a lot more, especially when refactoring. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -----Original Message----- From: Josh Berry <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:41:58 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [The Java Posse] Dart unveiled Apologies for not saying that I realize not all static typed items have to have "type" boilerplate. I've become a huge fan of inference. Hell, I even like Haskel and Scala. That said, even with that, there tends to be more boilerplate in statically typed languages than in dynamic. The open question is "why do some folks like dynamic typing?" My proposed answer was it can get out of your way better than static typing. You shot that down. I'm still curious for the answer. So far, the only answer either of you have put forward is "people that like dynamic typing just don't know the good languages for static typing." Is that really the best answer we have? On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 11:24 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Typing is not about boilerplate. For instance, LINQ in C#, or Haskell, or > even but less commonly Scala, can beat languages like Python and Ruby on > boilerplate. > > You have a skewed idea of typing equalling boilerplate, which I would guess > comes from Java, C and other similar languages. It's the same fallacy as > 'all mustachioed men are gay because of the YMCA video', when what those of > us who studied history know is that all mustachioed men are Hitler. > Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device > > -----Original Message----- > From: Josh Berry <[email protected]> > Sender: [email protected] > Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:51:55 > To: <[email protected]> > Reply-To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [The Java Posse] Dart unveiled > > Ok, so seems we are left with the unanswered question of why do people > prefer dynamic typing? My only thought is still that I'd like to have > something work as well as it can without having to fill out > boilerplate that just isn't relevant yet (or possibly ever). > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
