Re: Strong Typing, Dynamic Languages, What to do?

["Brent A. Fulgham" <bfulgham@debian.org>]

On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 12:21:36AM +0100, Oscar Fuentes wrote:
> I can understand the POV of some people here which are academics
> teaching how to program well to future professionals. For this task is
> good to have a language that every time you violate one of the "good
> rules" the compiler/interpreter yells at you saying you did an
> error. However, sometimes is good to be able to choose among several
> factors.

Speaking from the perspective of a practitioner in "the field", I can
say with certainty that being able to choose 'among several factors' is
almost never a good thing.

The things done in the name of optimization or to "get something to
ship" yield brittle systems that would often result in jail time in
most any other industry.

And frankly, very few of the people I've worked with in industry really
have enough knowledge to make these kinds of choices.  The less harm
they can do the better, and the more nagging a voice of conscience the
compiler can be, the better.

-Brent