[lumost]

Consider that you may be describing a compiler. Typos are not generally a problem in statically typed languages with notable exceptions such as dictionary key lookups etc.

Even without static typing, argument length verification etc. can be done with a suitable compiler. In python we are left chasing 100% code coverage in unit tests as it's the only way to be certain that the code doesn't include a silly mistake.

[samhw]

I think 100% code coverage is folly. Spreading tests so widely near-inevitably means they're also going to be thin. In any codebase I'm working on, I would focus my attention on testing functions which are either (a) crucially important or (b) significantly complex (and I mean real complexity, not just the cyclomatic complexity of the control flow inside the function itself).

[lumost]

Fully agree, but I never want to see a missed function argument programming error in customer facing code. In python you really do need code coverage to achieve this goal - static languages have some additional flexibility.

[lanstin]

Or a rich suite of linters religiously applied. Never save a file with red lines in flymake or the equivalent. Ed: actually, I am unsure if my current suite would miss required parameters. I tend to have defaults for all but the first parameter or two, so not a big issue for me I guess. I do like a compile time check on stuff tho, one of the reasons I am doing more and more tools in Go.