[m0llusk]

Having over 30 years of experience in delivering applications this is kind of amusing in how it shows how trends come and go. In the past dynamic typing was hot stuff that enabled great progress. Here we have another big trend.

It can be useful, but it seems like just more preference. The reason that strong typing is useful is that development groups have weak definitions and understandings of their data flow, their documentation is scant if it exists at all, and their test are woefully short of robust. So strong typing ends up being necessary, especially when developing always at top speed with chaotically dynamic teams. But unfortunately, the fact that you think you know what type some data is doesn't really tell you all you need to know about where it came from, how sure you can be it really is that type, and how you can know it is the specific data that you want for your business logic. It helps, but to really get development under control it will be necessary to define, document, and test data flows to a level that makes strong typing unnecessary and potentially even irrelevant.

When I hear this kind of statement from a developer I know that they are better at clinging to what are essentially religious beliefs than they are at coding solutions that will be consistently useful for users.