[net.followup] Strict Type Checking Reduces Bugs

ark (05/26/82)

While we're thinking about strict type checking, how about
looking at the other extreme?  I refer to dynamically typed
languages like SNOBOL, LISP, APL, and SETL, in which a variable
has whatever type it was most recently assigned.  In languages
like C and Fortran, you can get in trouble by using an expression
of one type where another is needed.  In languages like PASCAL,
that's harder because the implementation will (usually) stop you.
In languages like APL, it's frequently not an error at all.
One might think that dynamically typed languages are therefore
exceedingly error-prone, but my experience indicates otherwise.