<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:navy;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=navy>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>"I'm trying to compile a list of frequent
objections against using Python and a rational response to each."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>There are negatives regarding dynamic variable
typing. For a person reading code, you cannot tell from the signature of a
function what variable types it takes (you also can't tell what the return type
is from looking at a Python function signature). Also, you often cannot tell
from a variable instantiation what type it is without further investigation of
the type of the variable/function that is being used to assign to it. Which
makes code deciphering some degree more difficult. And the compiler itself cannot
tell from looking at things like a function signature what variable types should
be allowed and what should not, so it cannot assist the programmer by catching
things like function calls that have improper parameter types, during
compliation. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>As far as a response, I am actually of the opinion
that static typing is better for production systems. Or that the more critical
the production system is the more it should be statically typed. The extreme
example being code running on the Space Shuttle. But there are many who would
argue in favor of dynamic typing for production systems. Here's one:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>http://www.chimu.com/publications/short/whyDynamicTyping.html<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>