Python vs .Net

[Greg Brunet]

"Peter Hansen" <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message
news:3E1C34D0.ECFBC7BF at engcorp.com...
> > Static
> > typing is just another tool to help the development process, and
even if
> > proper testing reduces the advantages of static typing by 50 or 75%,
> > I'll still take whatever extra advantages I can get when I write
code.
>
> Not to beat a dead horse, but what if the advantages were reduced by,
> say, 98%.  Given the loss in productivity involved with all those
extra
> keystrokes for the static typing information for the compiler, you
> might reach a point where it is *less* effective overall to have the
> static typing in place.  :-)

If things were that drastic - I would agree with you. The interesting
thing is, even though I type in a few more keystrokes to define the
variable types, I believe that I gain enormous benefits when I use the
variables, or invoke functions & methods.  I tried to point this out in
the Intellisense thread.  While I get some of this with Python, it's not
nearly to the degree that is present with VB.  I get a function argument
list, just like in most Python editors, but I also get all of an
object's properties & methods in VB, which Python doesn't know.  Also,
as soon as I enter something like [MsgBox "Some text",] I get a list of
valid MessageBox flags.  No need to search help for them, make sure I
spelled them correctly, etc.  To me, all these things make the extra
keystrokes worth entering above & beyond the compile time code
validation advantages.

--
Greg