[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] Date Index Thread Index Search archive:
Date:Mon Apr 11 16:38:14 2000 
Subject:Re: List of Possible Poplog Projects 
From:pop 
Volume-ID:1000411.02 

Steve Leach said:

> The usual problem with these simpler examples is that everyone want to
> pile in and explain how it isn't the fault of strong typing but the fools
> that use it.  I anticipate remarks along the lines of -fgetc- is "broken"
> and no one writes interfaces like this anymore .... and I offer in
> return the following -- straight off the Javasoft site.

Is "strong" the right adjective. Don't we mean "static"? I'd say that
C is weakly statically typed. There's just nothing strong about
its type system. Java's is stronger, SML's stronger still. Though
it's perhaps better to make a distinction between "sound" typing
and "strong" typing. On a scale of 0-9 for soundness, strength

         C   SML   Scheme  Pop11  Java
static   Y   Y     N       N      Y
sound    0   9     9       5      9
strong   3   9     3       5      6

Pop-11's 5 for soundness comes from the fast_.. functions. Pop-11 scores
as being more strongly typed than Scheme on account of the record facility.
SML is -really- strong for some tree-munching applications.


Robin.