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From: "Chad R. Meiners" <crmeiners@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Is strong typing worth the cost?
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:02:34 -0400
Organization: Michigan State University
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"dmjones" <derek@NOSPAMknosof.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Xns9200929868B11derekknosofcouk@62.253.162.107...

> Why?  Can you prove to me that the benefits will be greater
> than the costs?

If you want to write the SAME programs (one with and one without strong
typing), you will have to analyze the constraints that you wish to place on
variables in both programs.  The cost of using a strong type system is the
creation of types that satisfy your constraints; the cost of not using a
strong type system is writing the code so that it audits itself with
constraint checks every time it modifies the variables.  Note that if you do
not wish to place constraints on any variables the strong typing system does
not cost more than the weak typing system since you do not have to create
any types.  One can easily construct examples where the strong typing
systems costs less.  Can you construct an example where it costs more?

If you want to write DIFFERENT programs (one with strong typing the others
without), how can you compare the costs of strong typing against the cost of
weak typing?

-CRM