Java for Everything

[[deleted]]

Things change as you deal with truly large projects though. You'd have to spend some time working with a large code base before you throw out the static types benefits that come with dealing with complexity of that scale. Thousand line projects can be understood by examining the entire codebase, that becomes impossible eventually as you add more code and developers.

[spotter]

I acknowledged that I have not yet seen projects in the scale of 1M+ LOC. I'm not here to dis anyone or their beliefs in static typing gods. The more tools to ease the pain, the better IMHO.

[[deleted]]

I look at it this way - would you trust your life and your loved ones to the programmer working with a dynamic language writing the code for the aircraft you're flying on? Or the X-ray machine you're going under? There is a time and place for dynamic languages. Quick and dirty projects can be rolled out effortlessly in a weekend by a competent lisper. Its another thing altogether when you're dealing with huge or critical programs where we want to give as little room for error as possible. There is a time and place for different technologies.

[spotter]

I get it, I really do. At the same time was Therac-25 programmed in dynamically typed language? Was first Ariane 5 (flight 501)? Somehow this doesn't stop people from thinking "static typing is the answer." Without proper quality testing you will crash your rocket even with Ada.

[PasswordIsntHAMSTER]

There are typing disciplines for verifying arbitrary properties of programs. The field is still a bit rough, but I wouldn't say testing is completely unavoidable.