Are the critiques in "All the things I hate about Python" valid?

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 12:38 AM, Antoon Pardon <antoon.pardon at vub.be> wrote:
> Why should this be done at compile time? I say a static language can do
> the same as a dynamic language and your counter point is to ask for how
> that static language can do something extra.
>
> The point I am making is that you claim dynamic languages are excelling
> by being less demaning of the dynamic language.
>
> So yes the static language can check those kind of restraints at runtime
> just as easily as a dynamic language.

So what's the point of a "static language" if all it's doing is the
same thing that any other language can do?

The whole point of static analysis is that you can verify correctness
BEFORE something gets into production. That means you have the
potential to catch bugs before it's too late. If all you're going to
do is check everything at run time, it's not static analysis any more.
The question is: Can you create a strong compile-time type system that
can verify correctness WITHOUT running the code?

ChrisA