[crdoconnor]

The problem with stringly typed languages is that they don't fail fast or clearly. You end up having to spend more time debugging and diagnosing weird behavior when things go wrong and less time actually productively writing code.

This is a problem with weakly typed languages in general, but stringly typed is the nadir of weakly typed.

The problem increases geometrically with the size of the software system - you can't make building blocks to build other software on because the foundations are too unstable, so the only thing that really works is short programs that don't do very much - or, as some people put it, "toys".

He mentions strict format checks as a way to offset that, but I don't think that's nearly enough.