program surgery vs. type safety

[Alex Martelli]

dman at dman13.dyndns.org wrote:

> On 14 Nov 2003 04:17:08 -0800, Jeremy Fincher wrote:
>> Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> wrote in message
>> news:<QAOsb.21403$hV.779611 at news2.tin.it>...
>>> Sure,
>>> "tests can only show the _presence_ of errors, not their
>>> _absence_".  But so can static, compiler-enforced typing -- it
>>> can show the presence of some errors, but never the absence of
>>> others ("oops I meant a+b, not a-b"! and the like...).
>> 
>> But it *does* show the absence of type errors,
> 
> Not all the time.  Casting (a la C, C++, Java) allows the programmer
> to say "silly compiler, you don't know what you're saying" (usually,
> it also converts int<->float and such, but apart from that).  That
> results in a runtime type error the compiler didn't detect.  A Java
> runtime will detect that later, but C and C++ will just behave wrong.

Jeremy was arguing for a _GOOD_ static typing system, as in ML or Haskell,
not the travesty thereof found in those other languages.
I do not think I've seen anybody defending the "staticoid almost-typing"
approach in this thread.


Alex