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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,d89b08801f2aacae X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-30 11:21:04 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newspeer.monmouth.com!newscon02.news.prodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr21.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: tmoran@acm.org Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is strong typing worth the cost? References: X-Newsreader: Tom's custom newsreader Message-ID: <9gBz8.4054$%r1.2380315867@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.175.241.1 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr21.news.prodigy.com 1020190853 ST000 64.175.241.1 (Tue, 30 Apr 2002 14:20:53 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 14:20:53 EDT Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com X-UserInfo1: TSU[@SVGXZUWSVPXN[O@_WH@YR_B@EXLLBWLOOAFEQR@ETUCCNSKQFCY@TXDX_WHSVB]ZEJLSNY\^J[CUVSA_QLFC^RQHUPH[P[NRWCCMLSNPOD_ESALHUK@TDFUZHBLJ\XGKL^NXA\EVHSP[D_C^B_^JCX^W]CHBAX]POG@SSAZQ\LE[DCNMUPG_VSC@VJM Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 18:20:53 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:23290 Date: 2002-04-30T18:20:53+00:00 List-Id: > Who mentioned safe and correct? If you don't care about safe or correct, then ";" constitutes an elegant, short, program to solve any problem whatsoever. > Where is the evidence of a worthwhile cost/benefit > for strong typing? Let's rephrase that: Where is the evidence that strong typing is not worth the cost? As a matter of fact, what does it cost? I suggest the cost is zero, in which case even the most minor of benefits would make the benefit/cost = infinity. > Is experimental evaluation a dead duck in software engineering? To be dead implies it once lived. Actual hard data on software engineering is remarkable by its absence. 2 cents: In addition to constraints, strong typing allows the compiler to tell you when you've used the wrong variable for a subscript, for instance.