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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no 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 13:20:13 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!ra.nrl.navy.mil!dca6-feed2.news.algx.net!allegiance!nntp.abs.net!news.voicenet.com!nntp.upenn.edu!msunews!not-for-mail From: "Chad R. Meiners" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Is strong typing worth the cost? Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 16:15:21 -0400 Organization: Michigan State University Message-ID: References: <4519e058.0204290722.2189008@posting.google.com> <3CCE8523.6F2E721C@earthlink.net> <3CCED46D.43145174@san.rr.com> Reply-To: "Chad R. Meiners" NNTP-Posting-Host: arctic.cse.msu.edu X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:23294 Date: 2002-04-30T16:15:21-04:00 List-Id: "Darren New" wrote in message news:3CCED46D.43145174@san.rr.com... > "Chad R. Meiners" wrote: > > One can easily construct examples where the strong typing > > systems costs less. Can you construct an example where it costs more? > > Perhaps one where requirements are changing almost as fast as you can > keep up. Here I'm thinking of the XP techniques, which I think the OP > would probably classify as not strongly typed, even tho I expect most > programming language experts would classify Smalltalk as strongly typed. > :-) Changing requirements would require changing the auditing code which I would gather is alot more costly than changing type information. > > 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? > > You figure the cost of everything it takes to write the program that > meets the requirements under realistic requirements. Invalid! (well mostly ;) How do we know the costs are related to strong or weak typing? It could be that program A satisfies an unrequested requirement that doubles the cost of development. I realize that your realistic requirements MIGHT TRY to address this issue, but the better the requirements the closer your programs get to being the same which is the only way you can do a truly valid comparison. This is why it is hard to acquire valid experimental data in computer science. -CRM