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: 103376,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: fac41,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,b87849933931bc93 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public From: Richie Bielak Subject: Re: Static vs. Dynamic typing again (was Re: OO, C++, and something much better!) Date: 1997/01/24 Message-ID: <32E8BCE3.3029@calfp.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 211906653 x-nntp-posting-host: host010.nyc.interactive.net 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> x-nntp-posting-user: (Unauthenticated) content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii x-trace: 854113931/14832 organization: IBS Interactive, Inc. mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.object x-mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (X11; I; SunOS 5.4 sun4m) Date: 1997-01-24T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Eric Clayberg wrote: [...] > Most "message > not understood" errors are caused by messages being sent to nil (e.g., > an uninitialized variable or a prematurely freed variable). Furthermore, > the static type checker would not be able to detect errors that were > caused by dynamic message creation and dispatch (e.g., the message > selector is constructed dynamically based on runtime data). > OK. Sending a message to nil is not what I think of as a typing error and of course a static type checker would not catch that. There seems to be a cultural gap between the static-typing and dynamic-typing crowds. I was raised on statically typed languages and feel lost in a dynamically typed language (I fiddled little with Smalltalk and now I'm playing with Python). I mean, I read the code and can't tell what type a variable is... On the other hand, I have seen people used to other languages bang the keyboard and curse the Pascal compiler for not letting them do something that seemed obviously correct. No easy answers. ...richie -- * 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) *