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> Maybe for small scripts, static typing doesn't provide that much value (although even then I don't really buy it - why wouldn't you want to know what you're w

by wmil 6y ago

> Maybe for small scripts, static typing doesn't provide that much value (although even then I don't really buy it - why wouldn't you want to know what you're working with at any given time), but for sizable (web) applications that need to be maintained for years, it's critical. It's common for web devs to spend a lot of time dealing with semi-documented lumps of JSON. If you don't have any guarantees about the data in the first place then static typing ends up being a lot of pain without much benefit. Sure, the situation is far from ideal. But when you're in that situation static typing isn't solving your first problems.

macspoofing 6y ago
>If you don't have any guarantees about the data in the first place then static typing ends up being a lot of pain without much benefit. Uh huh. Are you trying to come up with scenarios that you think a typed language wouldn't be useful ... because you don't understand typed languages? If you have to work with crap JSON blobs with arbitrary and inconsistent typing, static typing doesn't prevent you from treating it as a 'dynamic' untyped map. That's true of pretty much every typed language there is, from TypeScript, to Dart, to Java, to C#. I do a lot of JSON consuming in Java and Dart. My preference is to enforce a schema on the incoming JSON blob and parse it into a typed object automatically, but if I can't, then I just parse it to Map<?,?> OR List<?> and work on that level. At some point you're going to have to write code to figure out the type of whatever property you're interested in because it may be important to know whether the property is a string, an int, a float, an array, or whatever. >But when you're in that situation static typing isn't solving your first problems. Neither is dynamic typing. You're in the exact same boat in that case ... except you get the benefit of typing in the rest of your app.

by wmil 6y ago

macspoofing 6y ago

>If you don't have any guarantees about the data in the first place then static typing ends up being a lot of pain without much benefit. Uh huh. Are you trying to come up with scenarios that you think a typed language wouldn't be useful ... because you don't understand typed languages? If you have to work with crap JSON blobs with arbitrary and inconsistent typing, static typing doesn't prevent you from treating it as a 'dynamic' untyped map. That's true of pretty much every typed language there is, from TypeScript, to Dart, to Java, to C#. I do a lot of JSON consuming in Java and Dart. My preference is to enforce a schema on the incoming JSON blob and parse it into a typed object automatically, but if I can't, then I just parse it to Map<?,?> OR List<?> and work on that level. At some point you're going to have to write code to figure out the type of whatever property you're interested in because it may be important to know whether the property is a string, an int, a float, an array, or whatever. >But when you're in that situation static typing isn't solving your first problems. Neither is dynamic typing. You're in the exact same boat in that case ... except you get the benefit of typing in the rest of your app.