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• static typing (Score:1)

  by mary.poppins (3530)

  Here's another controversial one:
  
      Static typing without type inference
  
  If you're going to make a new language, please make a type-inferring version of C. kthxbye
  • Re:static typing (Score:2)

    by schwern (1528)

    Could you give an example of a language which avoids this regret?
    • Re:static typing (Score:2)

      by ziggy (25) on 2005.04.08 21:25 (#39516) Journal

      Haskell's static typing does pretty good inferencing.

      $ ghci
      Prelude> let sq x = x * x
      Prelude> :type sq
      sq :: forall a. (Num a) => a -> a

      That is, the function sq is defined for all values a, such that a is an instance of the type class Num. Remember, Haskell is strongly typed, and this function is defined on all kinds of numbers (machine integers, bignums, floats, doubles, complex, etc.). Furthermore, it will be defined on all types you define that are also instances of Num.

      This is a contrived example, but it does demonstrate type inference. That is, it avoids the Java problem where a function like sq needs to be redefined for every numeric type you want to square (primitive numbers and user defined numeric types). All with a single definition.

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