Getting started

[James J. Besemer]

Adam Taylor wrote:

>This sounds like the same thing as I said, or damn close.  Am I
>missing something?
>

Not really.  Just different emphasis.

>Yes.  It seems to me that Table 1 in Cardelli:
>
>          Typed   Untyped
>Safe      ML      LISP
>Unsafe    C       Assembler
>
>Might be better like this:
>
>          Statically typed   Dynamically typed    Untyped
>Safe      ML                 LISP
>Unsafe    C                                       Assembler
>
>(Python would also be in the (Safe,Dynamically typed) position.)
>
>Although safety and strongly-checked are not the same thing, this
>table is also correct:
>
>                      Statically typed   Dynamically typed   Untyped
>Strongly checked      ML                 LISP
>Weakly checked        C                                      Assembler
>

I agree.  So where in this spacewould YOU put Python and Perl?

>>A literal reading furthermore defines "weakly typed" only in 
>>terms of static checking.
>>    
>>
>
>I don't understand what you mean by this.  Cardelli never uses the
>term "weakly typed" himself, he only uses it that one time, to say
>that it's the term most people use for the concept that he prefers to
>call "weakly checked".
>

I was translating his internal vocabulary to use the term we started 
with.  He defines "weakly checked" only in terms of "static checking". 
 Since they're synonyms, this reference only supports a def of "weakly 
typed" in terms of static checked languages.  So I'm saying the 
reference does not help us nearly as much as I would like.

>Or at
>least when people start talking about "strongly typed" vs "weakly
>typed" languages, that first thing to get straight is which axis
>they're talking about.
>
Fair enough.  

--jb

-- 

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