Re: Robert Martin on the Relevance and Future of Scripting and Dynamic Languages

[Michael Vanier <address@hidden>]

Here's an interesting quote from the article:

  When type-safe languages like C++, Pascal, and Ada came to the fore, we
  found that whole classes of errors were eliminated by the compiler. This
  safety came at a price. Every variable had to be declared before it was
  used. Every usage had to be consistent with its declaration. In essence,
  a kind of "dual-entry bookkeeping" was established for languages. If you
  wanted to use a variable (first entry) you had to declare it (second
  entry). This double checking gave the compiler vast power to detect
  inconsistency and error on the part of the programmer, but at the cost of
  the double entries, and of making sure that the compiler had access to
  the declarations.

I find it amusing that he considers C++ to be type-safe.  That's the first
time I've heard that.  Also, apparently Mr. Martin has never heard of type
inference, which all but eliminates the problem he describes.  Later, he
argues that unit testing can take the place of type checking.  Perhaps so,
but if you have to write lots of unit tests to check types, you are
spending a lot of effort to do something that should be done automatically
for you (and can be, in many languages).

I think his comments more accurately summarize the last decade of
programming than the next.

Mike


> From: "David Simmons" <David.Simmons@smallscript.com>
> Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 12:30:27 -0700
> 
> I was recently given a reference to the following article "Talk to
> programming guru Robert Martin about his vision for the next decade of
> programming" from March of this year.
> 
>     http://www.itworld.com/AppDev/1262/itw-0314-rcmappdevint/
> 
> I was curious whether people here share a similar opinion?
>  
> -- Dave S. [SmallScript Corp]
> 
> SmallScript for the AOS & .NET Platforms
> David.Simmons@SmallScript.com | http://www.smallscript.org
> 
>