Re: Who said strong typing is a benefit?

[Jim Rogers <jimmaureenrogers@worldnet.att.net>]

steve_H wrote:

> since many Ada programmers mention as one of Ada benefits is its 
> strong typing, I thought some here might find the following 
> 'interesting' to read.
> 
> I guess this is an argument of '4GL' vs '3GL'. The following seems
> to imply that not having to declare variables and having the ability to
> mix any variable with any in an expression is a 'benefit'. I am not sure
> I agree with this, on the other hand, one can not deny that one can
> write code faster in matlab than in a strongly typed language such as Ada
> specially for scientific applications where arrays and matrices are
> heavily used.
> 
> I wish there was a 'matlab like' environment based on an Ada like language.
> 
> from 
> 
> http://www.mathworks.com/company/digest/sept02/accel_matlab.pdf
> 
>  
> "MATLAB Type Handling
> An important benefit of MATLAB is that users do not have
> to declare variables to be of certain data types, as is required
> with 3GLs. In MATLAB, any variable can be assigned a
> value of any type, and that type can be changed implicitly
> at will because of an assignment to a new value of a different
> type.As a result, the MATLAB interpreter is prepared to
> deal with the most complicated data types (such as an ndimensional
> array of complex doubles) and is capable of
> performing operations no matter what the actual data
> types turn out to be at run-time"
> 

Please be sure you do not confuse dynamically typed languages with weakly
typed languages. Ada a statically typed, strongly typed language. Perl is
a dynamically typed, weakly typed language. Lisp is a dynamically typed,
strongly typed language.

The benefits of each of these approaches is a matter of taste or need.
Perl is most useful when development speed for text manipulation problems
is your major concern. Lisp is beneficial for general data grouping and parsing
problems. Ada is a beneficial when you must be able to determine code
correctness before running the program.

I have contracted for a not to be named telecom company that treated all
software as a disposable commodity. They were more interested in redoing bad
programs than writing them correctly the first time. They believed they needed
to get *something* to market, and that was more important than getting
*quality* to the market. If that is your goal then Ada offers you very little.
If your goal is to get a correct, high quality product to market quickly then
Ada provides some genuine benefits.

Jim Rogers