Re:Tests aren’t enough: Case study after adding type hints t...
by loup-vaillant on Monday October 18, 2021 @06:02PM
(#28912361)
> I would argue that the really big benefit of dynamic typing is that it enables a really nice interactive interpreter shell experience.
I use the Python REPL quite often, and have non trivial experience with Lua’s. But the best experience I’ve ever got was with OCaml: I type the expression, or function definition, without giving type annotations, and I get the type of the result in the response.
You wouldn’t believe the number of bugs I caught just by looking at the type. Before I even start testing the function. And that’s when I don’t have an outright type error, which a dynamic language wouldn’t have caught — not before I start testing anyway.
I use the Python REPL quite often, and have non trivial experience with Lua’s. But the best experience I’ve ever got was with OCaml: I type the expression, or function definition, without giving type annotations, and I get the type of the result in the response.
You wouldn’t believe the number of bugs I caught just by looking at the type. Before I even start testing the function. And that’s when I don’t have an outright type error, which a dynamic language wouldn’t have caught — not before I start testing anyway.