Comments on: Static typing http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/ Arquitectura y técnica Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:15:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Ricky Clarkson http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/#comment-39 Ricky Clarkson Sun, 19 Nov 2006 13:27:37 +0000 http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/#comment-39 Static typing doesn't have to mean type declarations everywhere. For example, Haskell is statically typed, but has inference, so you don't have to specify types (but you can). square x=x*x is a function definition, and the type of 'square' is a function that takes a Num and returns a Num. I think there's room in more conventional languages like Java, for type inference, but probably in the IDE rather than the language, by having the IDE hide declarations (if that's your preference). I noticed that lisp has an equivalent to static typing, whereby you can run code and generate code at compile time. I haven't seen that used, but I expect it works out to be a lot more flexible than Java's typing. Static typing doesn’t have to mean type declarations everywhere. For example, Haskell is statically typed, but has inference, so you don’t have to specify types (but you can).

square x=x*x

is a function definition, and the type of ’square’ is a function that takes a Num and returns a Num.

I think there’s room in more conventional languages like Java, for type inference, but probably in the IDE rather than the language, by having the IDE hide declarations (if that’s your preference).

I noticed that lisp has an equivalent to static typing, whereby you can run code and generate code at compile time. I haven’t seen that used, but I expect it works out to be a lot more flexible than Java’s typing.

]]> By: pachi http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/#comment-38 pachi Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:02:34 +0000 http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/#comment-38 It's not that static typing is useless, but it comes with its own problems, and the problems you're supposed to find in dynamically typed languages are not that important in my experience. Take into consideration that I'm not a professional programmer and my experience is, therefore, limited, but huge projects written in such languages do exist and lots of people that have been exposed to both models report the same experience (http://www.stylusstudio.com/xmldev/200205/post00450.html#). Also, keep in mind that I'm not talking about weakly typed languages here (btw, python is strongly typed). I'd recommend you reading Bruce Eckel's articles for a more detailed rationale. They're worth it. Thanks for reading the post and leaving a comment, anyway :). It’s not that static typing is useless, but it comes with its own problems, and the problems you’re supposed to find in dynamically typed languages are not that important in my experience.

Take into consideration that I’m not a professional programmer and my experience is, therefore, limited, but huge projects written in such languages do exist and lots of people that have been exposed to both models report the same experience (http://www.stylusstudio.com/xmldev/200205/post00450.html#). Also, keep in mind that I’m not talking about weakly typed languages here (btw, python is strongly typed).

I’d recommend you reading Bruce Eckel’s articles for a more detailed rationale. They’re worth it.
Thanks for reading the post and leaving a comment, anyway :).

]]> By: x http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/#comment-37 x Sat, 18 Nov 2006 23:27:43 +0000 http://blog.rvburke.com/2006/10/10/static-typing/#comment-37 It's not a problem to you, how about your coworkers? Do you share Python code with them? What code base are we talking about, 10,000 lines of code? 100,000? 1 million? It’s not a problem to you, how about your coworkers? Do you share Python code with them? What code base are we talking about, 10,000 lines of code? 100,000? 1 million?

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