Re: Pointers to "why C behaves like that ?"

"Christian Bau" <christian.bau@freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
[...]
> So a language that allows you to drop declarations lets you save five
> seconds because you don't have to type "long" or "int" or whatever in
> two places, and then it costs you three hours to find the bug.
>
> It is much better if I can specify redundantly what the code is
> supposed to do; that makes it more self-documenting and it is more
> likely that the code doesn't compile if I make mistakes.


I think a distinction should be made between languages with static
typing and languages with dynamic typing.


For languages with static typing and implicit declarations I entirely
agree with your comment. On the other hand languages with dynamic typing
allow a degree of generic programming that seems to make a big
difference. Proponents of languages such as Python argue that static,
explicit typing requires from you a lot of effort in exchange for a
false sense of security: no program is correct just because it compiles
cleanly. The time you save can be devoted to increasing the extent and
coverage of your
testing.


I must say that I still very much enjoy that "false sense of security"
and prefer programming in a statically typed language with explicit
declarations. However I do consider the argument reasonable.


Cheers,
Nicola Musatti

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