Quoth Ben Lippmeier
Grandiose, hand-wavy assertions like "strong typing leads to shorter development times and more reliable software" don't work on people that haven't already been there and done that. When you try to ram something down someone's throat they tend to resist.
Though, I think those sentiments can be appreciated when expressed properly. I mean, I can talk about how nice it is when my programs work the first time I run them, without necessarily being grandiose or trying to ram something down anyone's throat. I guess everyone's different - some Perl programmers might really respond to a nice Haskell program, if it isn't gratuitously incomprehensible. Others may be more interested in the rationale behind the language's features, and only from there find any motivation to try to understand the syntax. Of course it's a good idea to feign interest in their views on software engineering, etc., but mostly it comes down to your charisma. Never worked for me, but good luck! Donn Cave, donn@avvanta.com