From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robb Nebbe Subject: Re: Static vs. Dynamic typing again (was Re: OO, C++, and something much better!) Date: 1997/01/24 Message-ID: <32E8AEF1.31CC@iam.unibe.ch>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 212063970 references: <32DF458F.4D5C@concentric.net> <32DF94DC.6FF8@watson.ibm.com> <32DFD972.37E4@concentric.net> <32E4FC5B.242C@watson.ibm.com> <32E6862D.608B@parcplace.com> <32E764D0.23D9@calfp.com> <32E7A686.56D@parcplace.com> <32E7BD57.2558@calfp.com> <32E7E08A.3079@parcplace.com> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: Dept. of CS, University of Berne, Switzerland mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.object x-mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; SunOS 5.4 sun4m) Date: 1997-01-24T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Eric Clayberg wrote: > ... Smalltalk has been around for a long > time. Techniques for adding static type checking to it have been > available for a long time. If static typing had ever become an important > issue for the Smalltalk community, the Smalltalk vendors (IBM included) > would have provided that capability. It hasn't, so they haven't. > > -Eric Designing a language with typing in mind is not the same as retro-fitting a type system onto a language like Smalltalk. In the papers I read they usually wound up with some hybrid half static/half dynamic type system. If you don't consider typing from the start I would expect lots of problems with decidability issues. I guess that I don't share your confidence that Smalltalk vendors could follow the market if it moved torwards static typing. Robb Nebbe