Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

You act as if I said anything about anyone's experience. "they prefer static types" can mean a whole lot of things - there's type inference, soundness, turing-completeness, type classes, GADTs, higher-kinded types, dependent types, gradual typing, structural vs nominal typing, variance annotations, type-level programming, refinement types, linear types, effect systems, row polymorphism, and countless other dimensions along which type systems vary in their expressiveness, guarantees, and ergonomics.

Dynamic typing also varies - there's type introspection, runtime type modification aka monkey patching, different type checking strategies - duck typing & protocol checking, lazy & eager, contracts, guards and pattern matching; object models for single & multiple dispatch, method resolution order, delegation & inheritance, mixins, traits, inheritance chains, metaprogramming: reflection, code generation, proxies, metacircular evaluation, homoiconicity; there are memory and performance strategies: JIT, inline caching, hidden classes/maps; there are error handling ways, interoperability - FFI type marshaling, type hinting, etc. etc.

Like I said already - things aren't that simple, there isn't "yes" or "no" answer to this. "Preferring" only static typing or choosing solely dynamic typing is like insisting on using only a hammer or only a screwdriver to build a house. Different tasks call for different tools, and skilled developers know when to reach for each one. Static typing gives you the safety net and blueprints for large-scale construction, while dynamic typing offers the flexibility to quickly prototype and adapt on the fly. The best builders keep both in their toolbox and choose based on what they're building, not ideology.

In that sense, the OP is wrong - you can't judge pretty much any programming language solely based on one specific aspect of that PL, one has to try the "holistic" experience and decide if that PL is good for them, for their team and for the project(s) they're building.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: