Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

[Matthias Blume]

Pascal Costanza <costanza at web.de> writes:

> Fergus Henderson wrote:
> 
> > In my experience, people who have difficulties in getting their programs
> > to typecheck usually have an inconsistent design, not a design which is
> > consistent but which the type checker is too restrictive to support.
> 
> Have you made sure that this is not a circular argument?

Sure.  What he says is that the problems with those programs are
usually still there even after you erase types and, thus, arrive at an
untyped program.

> Does "consistent design" mean "acceptable by a type checker" in your book?

I cannot speak for Fergus, but I suspect (and hope!) the answer is
"no".  By "consistent design" we usually mean design that is free of
certain problems at the time the code executes on a real machine.

Matthias