From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,c406e0c4a6eb74ed X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!cyclone.tampabay.rr.com!news-west.rr.com!news.rr.com!news-server.columbus.rr.com!fe2.columbus.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "John B. Matthews" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: ADA Popularity Discussion Request References: <49dc98cf.0408110556.18ae7df@posting.google.com> <413e2fbd$0$30586$626a14ce@news.free.fr> <4140b5cc$0$17701$626a14ce@news.free.fr> <4144d6da$0$17714$626a14ce@news.free.fr> User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.3b1 (PPC Mac OS X) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 02:37:00 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.31.62.213 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: fe2.columbus.rr.com 1095043020 65.31.62.213 (Sun, 12 Sep 2004 22:37:00 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 22:37:00 EDT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3646 Date: 2004-09-13T02:37:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <4144d6da$0$17714$626a14ce@news.free.fr>, Lionel Draghi wrote: > jayessay wrote: > ... > >> Often I don't really care what type a variable has as long as it is > >>the same type as the value it takes. But with explicit typing a > >>simple type change can ripple through the application forcing the > >>change of many other functions. Simply changing the return type of > >>a commonly used function from single precision to double precision > >>may require every call of that function to be changed. That takes > >>time that could be better spent on higher level pursuits. > > > Good description of a serious problem with static typing. > > Serious problem? > 1 - if your float is a custom type, the type and related operators are > typically declared in the same package : changing it is trivial. > 2 - if you are using predifined type: too bad, but you can't comply > about strong typing if you are not using it the right way. > > Your serious problem seems really anecdotal to me. Indeed, if such a change is required, the compiler will reliably lead me to every affected part of the code--and no other. I consider this an advantage. John ---- jmatthews at wright dot edu www dot wright dot edu/~john.matthews/