Well, I wouldn't say I have to do "so much" run-time, only when I'd like to write a generic library, and in that case I make a judgment call whether I want to w

Well, I wouldn't say I have to do "so much" run-time, only when I'd like to write a generic library, and in that case I make a judgment call whether I want to write type-specific functions or type casts. When I absolutely have to, I just apply C polymorphism techniques. Stringly-typed in what sense?