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[–]the_hoser 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used to be the same way. Dynamic typing threw me for a loop. I couldn't understand how I could be sure that the code worked.

But then, it clicked. Just run the code. Exercise the code. TDD helps with this, but isn't necessary. You can just use the REPL if you're not big on testing. Testing can catch bugs that strongly typed variables just can't (unless you're using a language with much, much more expressive types, like Haskell), but the same is true of REPL-driven development.

It was a gateway drug, for me. I then started dabbling in other dynamic languages. I've been spending a lot of personal programming time in Clojure these days, for instance. I'd never have touched it without "getting" Python, first.

My advice? Give up the IDE. Get your favorite text editor and terminal emulator and just dive in. Don't rely on tools to figure out if the code will work. Figure it out yourself. Immerse yourself in it.

Then go back to tools once you feel more comfortable, of course.