On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 9:34 AM, Casey Hawthorne
Strict type system allows for a maximum number of programming errors to be caught at compile time.
I keep hearing this statement but others would argue that programming errors caught at compile time only form a minor subset of all errors caught.
So, in functional programming languages with a strict type system, e.g. Haskell, do typing errors from a larger subset of all programming errors.
Absolutely! Haskell developers trade debugging time for time arguing with the compiler about the correctness of their code. I'll give this meaningless anecdotal statistic: Compiler says my code is right => My code is actually right -- 60% Compiler says my code is wrong => My code is actually wrong -- 95% Haskell has a particular reputation for the former. Luke