Re: Static vs. Dynamic typing again (was Re: OO, C++, and something much better!)

[Eirik Mangseth <emangset@online.no>]

Richie Bielak wrote:
> 
> Eric Clayberg wrote:
> >
> > Richie Bielak wrote:
> > > but static typing _proves_ absence of certain kinds of errors.
> >
> > That's all well and good, but if the percentage of those kinds of errors
> > is absurdly low ...
> 
> That hasn't been my experience. I've used PASCAL, Modula-2 and now
> Eiffel.
> But that's only hearsay.
> 
> >
> > I'm actually somewhat ambivalent about static typing. I find it to be
> > very useful in a language like C++ where the syntax is complex and the
> > function invocation syntax makes it easy to transpose (or even leave
> > out) arguments.
> 
> What do you think about Eiffel?
> 
> [...]
> 
> >
> > The largest Smalltalk project I worked on was well over a million lines
> > of code and had 10-30 people working on it at any one time. The largest
> > Smalltalk project that I worked on by myself had over 100,000 lines of
> > code in it. I have personally written over 400,000 lines of commercial
> > Smalltalk code (ranging from shrink-wrapped apps to mission critical MIS
> > apps).
> >
> 
> I'm impressed.
> 
> > Why do you ask?
> >
> 
> I find that static typing helps a lot on large projects. Let's say
> I change one of my classes (say, I add an argument to a routine). I
> change
> my code and then attempt to compile. The compiler will find all the
> places
> where my routine is used and will complain. Even routines that
> get hardly ever executed (like error handlers or end of year processing
> etc).
> 
> How do you handle this type of change in Smalltalk? How do you find
> the dependancies?

One approach might be (this may not be the *optimal* approach though):

 when in the Class Hierarchy Browser, click on the method you're about
to change or have just changed, then choose the Methods menu. There
you'll find a menu item called Senders. Choosing this will bring up a
window displaying a list of all classes with the respective methods
calling the modified method. Click on one of the class>>method entries
and you'll be able to edit the code immediately.

By the way, there's also a menu item called implementors which displays
a list of classes implementing the method you're about to change.

Anyone care to share some more light on this?

> 
> ...richie
> 
> P.S. When I worked in Modula-2 our applications ranged 100,000 to
> 500,000 LOCs,
>      and the current Eiffel project I'm working on is about 700K LOC.
> 
> --
> * richieb@netlabs.net       - at home |  Richie Bielak             *
> * richieb@calfp.com         - at work |                            *
> *          Home page:   http://www.netlabs.net/hp/richieb          *
> *        "Fight software piracy, use free software!" (me)          *

Eirik M.

/Eirik Mangseth			United Consultants A/S, Oslo Office, Norway
 ema@uc-unitedconsultants.com	"Quality Software Through Quality People"
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 emangset@online.no								/