Re: ADA Popularity Discussion Request

[Jean-Marc Bourguet <jm@bourguet.org>]

kevin.cline@gmail.com (Kevin Cline) writes:

> Once you decide to test code before you write it, strong
> typing loses most of it's value.

Well, I've been told that the earlier you detect an error,
the easier and the cheaper it was to fix it.  This is
corrobated by my experience.  Errors detected by strong type
checking are found earlier than those detected by testing.

More, testing can only show that something happen.  Type
checking ensure that something does not happen.  So with
testing you'll test only the cases you have though about.
Most probably the one which are corrects.

So testing will catch only parts of the error that strong
type checking will find and that at an higher price.  That
is not to say that testing should be dropped: there are
problems which are not detected by type checking, but the
earlier detection -- and more precise localisation -- of the
problems worth the cost of strong type checking.

Yours,

-- 
Jean-Marc