dynamic typing questions

[John Roth]

"Robert Brewer" <fumanchu at amor.org> wrote in message
news:mailman.378.1071946544.9307.python-list at python.org...

Unit tests are wonderful, _IF_ you pre-conceive all the corner cases.
This is, of course, impossible in any sufficiently powerful system to be
worthwhile. Unit test are the greatest thing since sliced bread. No
argument from me. But Mr. Roth's hyperbole regarding the usefulness of
debuggers is out of place. IF you only use code you write, and IF you
fully understand your problem domain and range, then you MIGHT not need
a debugger. The rest of us mortals use them when they're needed.

[John Roth]
Which means, I suppose, that the immortals use print statements. [grin]

Seriously, I don't use one often enough to remember how to
use it. I only used them seriously for a few years after I got to
work on a system that had one (IBM MVS 20 Beta TSO, if
you have to know.)

When I started in '65, we had one system where we were
lucky to get one turnaround a week. That wasn't usual,
most of the systems had one turnaround per day. Planning
beats flailing around in the debugger any day.

John Roth
[/jr]


Robert Brewer
MIS
Amor Ministries
fumanchu at amor.org