Article View: comp.lang.misc
Article #800Re: An Interesting View of "Strong" Vs. "Weak" Typing
From: Nick Rothwell
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1990 12:02
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1990 12:02
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1956 bytes
In article <12843@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>, lgm@cbnewsc (lawrence.g.mayka) writes: >For this reason I submit that run-time typing is particularly >appropriate for large software systems that must evolve >continuously over a long lifecycle in response to unforeseen >customer needs - e.g., feature-rich telecommunications switching >systems. I see no reason why you can't do that kind of thing with a static type system, as long as it's flexible enough. If you have polymorphism, type abstraction, parameterised types and a decent type-secure module system then the abstraction mechanisms limit the amount of dependency between modules, so that changes are as localised as possible. Even for the inevitable global changes, if you trust the type system, then you can tend to make the changes to the support modules which provide the basic types, and let any changes to the types and sharing constraints propagate through. The work is done when the typechecker accepts the whole system once again. > Lawrence G. Mayka Nick. -- Nick Rothwell, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh. nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk <Atlantic Ocean>!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ "...all these moments... will be lost in time... like tears in rain."
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!lfcs!nick From: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: An Interesting View of "Strong" Vs. "Weak" Typing Keywords: typing, Ada, Lisp, definitions, evidence Message-ID: <1633@castle.ed.ac.uk> Date: 16 Jan 90 12:02:38 GMT References: <1990Jan13.155115.4809@mentor.com> <12843@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> Reply-To: nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) Followup-To: comp.lang.misc Organization: LFCS Enya Admiration Society Lines: 27 In-reply-to: lgm@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (lawrence.g.mayka)