Steve Yegge on Strong and Weakly Typed Languages
Original post provide by PHP Everywhere - By John LimSteve Yegge compares Perl and Java usage in Amazon in Is Weak Typing Strong Enough? An interesting read from someone who is a Java proponent.
I still have some doubts. Do weakly-typed systems have inherently lower scalability? Do they tend to dissolve into vast typeless traps at a certain size, as the static camp would have you believe? Do the runtime type-error rates get out of hand, even with rigorous unit testing and software-engineering discipline?
At this juncture, I think enforced static typing (e.g. what you find in Java, C++, OCaml, Ada, etc.) is detrimental to progress and flexibility. I also think that a complete lack of support for it (e.g. what you find in Ruby and today’s Python) is problematic for being able to selectively tighten up systems as their usage patterns become established. I think Lisp’s solution, where you can add in static types as needed, is close to ideal.
But I’m still a bit timid about trying to write something really significant in Ruby (my weakly-typed language of choice), on account of its performance and its lack of native threading. I’m equally timid about trying Common Lisp, mostly because the package contributions on Cliki seem fairly paltry; the language doesn’t appear to have enough momentum for me to commit to it. I have similar reservations about all the other viable options (e.g. Python, Erlang, Scheme, Lua).
The key is not to argue about abandoning one for the other, but use the strengths of both. For core code where speed and threading is critical, use strongly typed compiled code. At the periphery, for user interface and rapidly changing business rules, use a dynamically typed language.
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