[Python-ideas] Adding "Typed" collections/iterators to Python

[Steven D'Aprano]

Nick Coghlan wrote:

> Weak vs strong typing and dynamic vs static typing are well-defined
> concepts - it's just all too common that folks that initially learn to
> program with a static language confuse the two spectra and think that
> "static typing" and "strong typing" are the same thing.
[...]

While I like the definitions Nick has given, I think he's a tad optimistic to 
claim that the various foo-typing are "well-defined".

I think that weak and strong typing aren't dichotomies, but extremes in a
continuum. Most languages include elements of both weak and strong typing, 
particularly coercion of ints to floats.

Chris Smith's influential article "What To Know Before Debating Type
Systems" goes further, suggesting that weak and strong typing are
meaningless terms. I don't go that far, but you should read his article:

http://cdsmith.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/an-old-article-i-wrote/

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_system



-- 
Steven