Re: Q: type ... is new String

[Shark8 <onewingedshark@gmail.com>]

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012 7:20:14 AM UTC-5, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> On 05.06.12 11:06, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> 
> >> (All I see is subsequences of 2#bbbb_bbbb#. For the AI part,
> >> I am told to produce the most likely information that the
> >> originator might have intended to send.)
> > 
> > Bad design. Don't do that.
> 
> How is producing the most likely information from a piece
> of data bad design? And who am I to say "I don't do that"?

PHP gives a good answer [by illustrating the wrong way to do it].

"*PHP is built to keep chugging along at all costs. __When faced with either doing something nonsensical or aborting with an error, it will do something nonsensical.__ Anything is better than nothing.
*Weak typing (i.e., silent automatic conversion between strings/numbers/et al) is so complex that __whatever minor programmer effort is saved is by no means worth it__."
From: http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/

"And if you are in the business of creating or using magic then make it very clear what it expects where and when and why and where. Be as upfront as you possibly can and give proper warnings when something goes awry."
From: http://www.pelshoff.com/2012/04/in-favour-of-typing

What you're asking with the "producing the most likely information" question is exactly summed up in the emphasized portions of the first quote. The second quote {being more about the internal codebase, but still applicable} could easily be rephrased "give a warning about behavior based on questionable assumptions".