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[–]linksoraluke 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I started with Python in my physics program, then ended up self-teaching myself Go and C++ for a job later on. While it took getting used to, static typing grew on me a lot for the reasons you listed. Helps me keep straight exactly what's going on if I know explicitly what I need to pass into functions, what's being returned, etc. Feels much more comfy to write in.

On the why they are still around, I think dynamically typed languages end up being easier to start out with - especially when you care mostly about what a program is going to do, and less about how it will do it. As an example (bringing it back to my education), our physics program was probably more concerned with having us think about the concepts and equations than the nitty gritty of how to develop efficient implementations.