rockwell@socrates.umd.edu (Raul Rockwell) (04/30/91)
me: Strong typing also means that the function will terminate. new: Excuse me? Any language implementing while loops ... I'm going by the classic definition of a type error (a partial function will not terminate when given values of the wrong type). Literally, use of while loops opens the door to type errors (but the use of a while loop is not always a type error). The social goodness or badness of this is another matter... new:: Values of the wrong type are assumed to possibly have new:: incompatible representations; i.e., valid integers may not be new:: valid floats, etc. me: "assumed to possibly" ??? new: Merely meaning that the strong vs weak distinction is moot if new: there is only one type of value. Once again, please note that you can have very useful functions which may not be applied to specific values but may be applied to other values using the "same type of value". For example, the gamma function comes to mind, which is defined for _positive integers_ and for all _non-integer_ real numbers. Raul Rockwell