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,fd63afa4dc364b7e X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-03-17 14:58:13 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.cwix.com!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sea-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Brian Rogoff Subject: Static typing (Was Re: Better support for garbage collection) In-Reply-To: <98umc6$39coj$1@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de> Message-ID: References: <98m938$2iod0$1@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de><98pgs1$32up7$1@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de> <98umc6$39coj$1@ID-25716.news.dfncis.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 22:57:05 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.184.139.136 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: sea-read.news.verio.net 984869825 206.184.139.136 (Sat, 17 Mar 2001 22:57:05 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 22:57:05 GMT Organization: Verio Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:5818 Date: 2001-03-17T22:57:05+00:00 List-Id: On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, Nick Roberts wrote: > "Robert A Duff" wrote in message > > > Static typing doesn't cure bugs either. > > > > Right, but there are fewer zealots making *that* claim. > > Maybe not in so many words, but actually there are a lot of people who claim > that a static typing system causes more trouble than it is worth. I am on > this side of that particular fence, but I see their point (e.g. it can > reduce the size of the source code by several times, which in itself, it > could be claimed, improves readability). You're confusing static typing with *explicit* or *manifest* static typing. Do yourself a favor and look at ML or Haskell. Better, here is a snippet from the OCaml top level # let rec len l = match l with [] -> 0 | x::xs -> 1 + len xs;; Hey, where are the types? Is this like Lisp? No, not really, here is what the top level says when I enter that val len : 'a list -> int = So the system *infers* the type, and a very general type, for that function. It takes a list of anything to an integer. I didn't even need to instantiate a generic for that. Pretty spiffy, huh? -- Brian