Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

[Pascal Costanza]

Matthias Blume wrote:
> Ed Avis <ed at membled.com> writes:
> 
> 
>>Pascal Costanza <costanza at web.de> writes:
>>
>>
>>>>Should we then conclude that compile-time syntax checking is not
>>>>worth having?
>>>
>>>No. Syntax errors make the program fail, regardless whether this is
>>>checked at compile-time or at runtime.
>>>
>>>A type "error" detected at compile-time doesn't imply that the
>>>program will fail.
>>
>>Actually it does, in a statically typed language.
> 
> 
> Nitpick: Neither syntactic nor statically checked type errors make
> programs fail. Instead, their presence simply implies the absence of a
> program.

Yes, the absence of a program that might not fail if it wouldn't have 
been rejected by the static type system.


Pascal

-- 
Pascal Costanza               University of Bonn
mailto:costanza at web.de        Institute of Computer Science III
http://www.pascalcostanza.de  Römerstr. 164, D-53117 Bonn (Germany)