[js8]

I downvoted you. First of all, your explanation of what "classical Dijkstra strawman" is lacks the substantiation. Second, your statement about C vs Python is a sort of strawman itself in the context of static vs dynamic typing. You should compare Python with things like Java, Rust or Haskell. (Or C with dynamic languages from similar era - LISP, Rexx, Forth etc.)

[bazoom42]

It is a strawman because nobody actually equates the ease of programming with the ease of making undetected mistakes.

[vacuity]

Presumably no one thinks "I love using [dynamically-typed language] because I can make mistakes easier", but on the other hand, isn't it the case that large codebases are written with low initial friction but high future maintenance?

[bazoom42]

So you agree it is a strawman?

[vacuity]

Perhaps Dijkstra was going for the former, but is it bad to consider a stronger argument along the lines of what he said?

[bazoom42]

A charitable interpretation would be he critizises e.g JavaScripts silent type coercion which can hide silly mistakes, compared to e.g Python which will generally throw an error in case of incompatible types.