3 ms·

Loose typing is a nightmare. The youngins always learn the hard way.

by crystaln 3y ago

bdcravens 3y ago
20+ years of experience here, I happily reach for loosely typed languages in most circumstances.
- lolinder 3y ago
  Can you elaborate on what circumstances you're referring to? The field is extremely diverse these days, and tools that are appropriate for small data science teams may not work as well in enormous monorepos maintained by thousands of developers (and vice versa). What's missing from most discussions of static/dynamic typing is context—each career is unique and what projects you've worked on will have a huge impact on your perception of which is preferable.
  - bdcravens 3y ago
    You perfectly illustrated the point: that there are no maxims like the grandparent comment made. Myself, I work on very small teams, usually building applications that are backend-heavy web apps or filled with tons of async background processing on the server. Applications that are funded by revenue, not VC. Applications where I typically have a high degree of autonomy and responsibility as to maintainability, with usually no insulation between me and stakeholders. Given different parameters, I'm sure the decisions would be different as well.
    - lolinder 3y ago
      Oh, for sure, I wasn't endorsing OP's position! I had another recent thread [0] that was full of highly dogmatic claims on my mind, where I noticed that very few people brought in the context for their opinions. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37764326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37764326
- crystaln 3y ago
  For quick scripts sure. For writing an application or something that actually require design and libraries? Why bother? You need to be meticulous anyway, why not be meticulous in code?
  - bdcravens 3y ago
    Literally every application I work on requires design, libraries, and meticulous code. The focus for me is on the tools and frameworks, not the underlying language. Show me a Typescript-based or Go-based language that can go from zero to production as fast as Rails with the same-sized team with no productivity loss, and I'd happily use it.
hw 3y ago
Loose typing is a blessing. Reading and writing code with type declarations everywhere is a nightmare. YMMV.
caseyohara 3y ago
Ruby is dynamically typed and strongly typed.
adamors 3y ago
Good thing that Ruby is actually strongly typed.

Loose typing is a nightmare. The youngins always learn the hard way.

bdcravens 3y ago

20+ years of experience here, I happily reach for loosely typed languages in most circumstances.

lolinder 3y ago
Can you elaborate on what circumstances you're referring to? The field is extremely diverse these days, and tools that are appropriate for small data science teams may not work as well in enormous monorepos maintained by thousands of developers (and vice versa). What's missing from most discussions of static/dynamic typing is context—each career is unique and what projects you've worked on will have a huge impact on your perception of which is preferable.
- bdcravens 3y ago
  You perfectly illustrated the point: that there are no maxims like the grandparent comment made. Myself, I work on very small teams, usually building applications that are backend-heavy web apps or filled with tons of async background processing on the server. Applications that are funded by revenue, not VC. Applications where I typically have a high degree of autonomy and responsibility as to maintainability, with usually no insulation between me and stakeholders. Given different parameters, I'm sure the decisions would be different as well.
  - lolinder 3y ago
    Oh, for sure, I wasn't endorsing OP's position! I had another recent thread [0] that was full of highly dogmatic claims on my mind, where I noticed that very few people brought in the context for their opinions. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37764326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37764326
crystaln 3y ago
For quick scripts sure. For writing an application or something that actually require design and libraries? Why bother? You need to be meticulous anyway, why not be meticulous in code?
- bdcravens 3y ago
  Literally every application I work on requires design, libraries, and meticulous code. The focus for me is on the tools and frameworks, not the underlying language. Show me a Typescript-based or Go-based language that can go from zero to production as fast as Rails with the same-sized team with no productivity loss, and I'd happily use it.

hw 3y ago

Loose typing is a blessing. Reading and writing code with type declarations everywhere is a nightmare. YMMV.

caseyohara 3y ago

Ruby is dynamically typed and strongly typed.

adamors 3y ago

Good thing that Ruby is actually strongly typed.