September 22, 1999 Strong Typing Slide #38

Conclusion

  1. Type checking in C and Pascal sucks.

  2. Just because static type checking is a failure in C and Pascal doesn't mean you have to give up on the idea.

  3. Languages like ML have powerful compile-time type checking that is successful beyond the wildest imaginings of people who suffered from Pascal.

  4. It is probably impossible to get static, ML-like type checking into Perl without altering it beyond recognition.

  5. However, Perl does have some type checking mechanisms, and more are coming up.


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