alt Hacker NewsDynamic typing is neat, I actually prefer it to static typing. Most people who think they have a problem with dynamic typing actually have a problem with weak typing.
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The standard complaint of pointless type errors that static type analysis would catch has nothing to do with weak typing, nor does the other one about unreliable listing of available ops in your editor by pressing `.` and looking at the autocomplete list. If you think the only thing people think is wrong about dynamic typing is JS `==` then you are swinging at a strawman from a decade ago.
Technically, in a type theory context, there’s no such thing as “dynamic typing”. Types are a static, syntactic property of programs.
The correct term for languages that don’t have syntactic types is “untyped”.
> Most people who think they have a problem with dynamic typing actually have a problem with weak typing.
All people who say things like this have never studied computer science.
Dynamic typing is no typing.
The point of types is to prove the absence of errors. Dynamic typing just has these errors well-structured and early, but they're still errors.
There is no consistent definition of the term "weak typing". Do you mean implicit coercion?
> Most people who think they have a problem with dynamic typing actually have a problem with weak typing.
Ironically, I would counter that, in my experience, most people who have a problem with static typing actually have a problem with verbose type systems, like Java's or C++'s — or Rust's. (Rust is at least gaining something for its verbosity.)
Type inference is a neat way to bridge the gap. OCaml, Haskell, and Swift (to name a few) all feature distinct type inferencing that give you the benefits of static types without as much syntactic overhead.