Re: Is strong typing worth the cost?

[Gary Scott <scottg@flash.net>]

Pascal Obry wrote:
> 
> "Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> writes:
> 
> > In fairness, I think that the problem is a little different than just
> > finding examples of where strong typing reduces bugs. I think all of us here
> > have seen numerous examples where strong type checking had caught things
> > that are potentially really nasty, hard to find bugs. The question seems to
> > be "...But is there any scientific evidence that strong type checking buys
> > back more than it costs?"
> 
> This is always hard to prove... But look at Preben example, the second version
> of the program is no more complex than the first one. Both are so similar than
> they certainly cost the same at the development step. But the second will
> catch the error and will avoid a debug session which cost more than writing
> the piece of code in the example ! As you say we all have lot of example like
> this... This is no proof, we don't have resources to play the game of writing
> a software in two different languages and compare the results...

Even with the resources, you likely won't have equal knowledge in
multiple languages in order to do the best possible job in each
language.  In a great many fields, execution performance is highly
important whereas not in others, so you also need to carefully choose
the problem you're solving in those multiple languages, possibly
designed specifically targeting specific, disparate problem domains. 
Some languages claim to be "general purpose", but usually those are weak
in numerical programming.  Those tailored for numerical programming are
often weak in "system" programming.  So no matter what you do, it
probably won't be a fair comparison.

> 
> Pascal.
> 
> --
> 
> --|------------------------------------------------------
> --| Pascal Obry                           Team-Ada Member
> --| 45, rue Gabriel Peri - 78114 Magny Les Hameaux FRANCE
> --|------------------------------------------------------
> --|         http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pascal.obry
> --|
> --| "The best way to travel is by means of imagination"


-- 

Gary Scott
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