[dinosaurdynasty]

It's because the nature of typing has changed drastically over the last decade or so, in well known languages, going from C++/Java's `FancyObject *fancyObject = new FancyObject()` (which was definitely annoying to type, and was seen as a way to "tell the compiler how to arrange memory" as opposed to "how do we ensure constraints hold?") to modern TypeScript, where large well-typed programs can be written with barely a type annotation in sight.

There's also a larger understanding that as programs get larger and larger, they get harder to maintain and more importantly refactor, and good types help with this much more than brittle unit tests do. (You can also eliminate a lot of busywork tests with types.)

[hbrn]

Large programs are harder to maintain because people don't have the balls to break them into smaller ones with proper boundaries. They prefer incremental bandaids like type hints or unit tests that make it easier to deal with the big ball of mud, instead of not building the ball in the first place.

[liontwist]

No it hasn’t? C++ type system has hardly changed (until concepts) and is one of the most powerful available.

A certain generation of devs thought types were academic nonsense and then relearned the existence of those features in other languages. Now they are zealots about using them.

[josephg]

I think the point is that in newer languages like typescript, the price paid for static typing is lower because type inference does so much of the leg work. You get all the benefits of static typing, and the cost is usually tiny - you just need to define your types (a valuable exercise regardless) and add them to function signatures.

We’ve come a long way from the C++ or Java I wrote when I was young, where types were named and renamed constantly. As I understand it, even C++ has the auto keyword now.

[maleldil]

C++ has extensive type inference now (C++20):

    #include <string>

    auto func(auto x, auto y) -> auto {
        return x + y;
    }

    auto main() -> int {
        auto i = func(1, 2);
        auto s = func(std::string("a"), std::string("b"));
    }

`int` is required as a return type from `main`, but everything else is inferred. This works because `func` becomes a template function where each parameter type is a separate template type, so you get compile-time duck typing. It also works with concepts (e.g. `std::integral auto x`).

It's quite neat, but I don't think anyone actually writes code this way, except for lambdas.