[VulgarExigency]

My point was not about the safety of the code, it was about the expressiveness, which is also what the comment I replied to was about. If the parameter has an explicit type (instead of no type, as is normal in Ruby, or `void*`, which is the C equivalent), it forces the developer to consider the design of the function, instead taking the path of least resistance because they're inexperienced/incompetent/a large language model/burnt-out to the point where even the thought of opening the file makes them feel the not-anxiety of burnout/<insert reason here>.

[dpark]

> instead of no type, as is normal in Ruby, or `void`, which is the C equivalent*

“void *” is not the equivalent of “no type” from Ruby. “void *” says “I operate on raw memory”. It says exactly the same thing as “byte *”.

For sure you should generally not write a function that accepts a “void *” and then internally casts it to some concrete pointer type and operates on that type, but the problem there is the internal behavior, not the choice of byte vs void pointer.

[lostglass]

Forcing developers to consider and more is harmful though. You're arguing to put all of the forethought upfront, when you have the least context and least understanding of what can go wrong, and carrying that complexity forward rather than starting simple and refactoring over time.