Questions tagged [dynamic-typing]

Dynamic Typing is a property of a programming language where type checks are performed mostly at run time.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
79 votes
5 answers
11k views

Is there a correlation between the scale of the project and the strictness of the language?

Explaining the difference between strictness of languages and paradigms to a colleague of mine, I ended up asserting that: Tolerant languages, such as dynamic and interpreted languages, are used best ...
Arseni Mourzenko's user avatar
76 votes
7 answers
9k views

Dynamically vs Statically typed languages studies [closed]

Do there exist studies done on the effectiveness of statically vs dynamically typed languages? In particular: Measurements of programmer productivity Defect Rate Also including the effects of ...
Winston Ewert's user avatar
22 votes
4 answers
4k views

Architectural differences between dynamic and static languages

Are there any major architectural differences when designing applications that will be built on static languages (such as C# or Java) and dynamic languages (such as Ruby or Python)? Which are the ...
Raphael's user avatar
  • 1,997
11 votes
4 answers
2k views

How does thinking on design patterns and OOP practices change in dynamic and weakly-typed languages?

There is a fairly helpful question already along these lines ("Non-OOP Design Patterns?"), but I am more curious about a transitional point of view for someone just getting started with dynamic and ...
Domenic's user avatar
  • 684
116 votes
20 answers
45k views

Is static typing worth the trade-offs?

I began coding in in Python primarily where there is no type safety, then moved to C# and Java where there is. I found that I could work a bit more quickly and with less headaches in Python, but then ...
105 votes
9 answers
33k views

What is the supposed productivity gain of dynamic typing? [closed]

I often heard the claim that dynamically typed languages are more productive than statically typed languages. What are the reasons for this claim? Isn't it just tooling with modern concepts like ...
Dr. Hans-Peter Störr's user avatar
20 votes
6 answers
4k views

Gradual Typing: "Almost every language with a static type system also has a dynamic type system"

This claim by Aleks Bromfield states: Almost every language with a static type system also has a dynamic type system. Aside from C, I can't think of an exception Is this a valid claim? I ...
hawkeye's user avatar
  • 4,819
19 votes
3 answers
1k views

Are there any empirical studies on the effect of different languages on software quality?

The proponents of functional programming languages assert that functional programming makes it easier to reason about code. Those in favor of statically typed languages say that their compilers catch ...
jgre's user avatar
  • 291
71 votes
14 answers
27k views

Is it a bad idea to return different data types from a single function in a dynamically typed language?

My primary language is statically typed (Java). In Java, you have to return a single type from every method. For example, you can't have a method that conditionally returns a String or conditionally ...
Daniel Kaplan's user avatar
35 votes
9 answers
9k views

Do dynamic typed languages deserve all the criticism? [closed]

I have read a few articles on Internet about programming language choice in the enterprise. Recently many dynamic typed languages have been popular, i.e. Ruby, Python, PHP and Erlang. But many ...
Jonas's user avatar
  • 14.9k
32 votes
3 answers
5k views

Is there a real advantage to dynamic languages? [closed]

First I want to say Java is the only language I ever used, so please excuse my ignorance on this subject. Dynamically typed languages allow you to put any value in any variable. So for example you ...
Aviv Cohn's user avatar
  • 21.4k
27 votes
2 answers
1k views

What semantic features of Python (and other dynamic languages) contribute to its slowness?

I don't know very well Python. I'm trying to understand more precisely what exact features of dynamic languages (à la Python, Lua, Scheme, Perl, Ruby, ....) are forcing their implementations to be ...
Basile Starynkevitch's user avatar
21 votes
11 answers
10k views

Are dynamic languages always interpreted?

Looking at most (if not all) dynamic languages (e.g. Python, PHP, Perl and Ruby), they are all interpreted. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is there any example of dynamic language that goes through ...
Joshua Partogi's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
2k views

How do you navigate and refactor code written in a dynamic language?

I love that writing Python, Ruby or Javascript requires so little boilerplate. I love simple functional constructs. I love the clean and simple syntax. However, there are three things I'm really bad ...
Philippe Beaudoin's user avatar
14 votes
9 answers
5k views

Dynamic vs Statically typed languages for websites [closed]

This statement suggests that statically typed languages are not ideal for web sites: I’ll contrast that with building a website. When rendering web pages, often you have very many components ...
Bradford's user avatar
  • 243
10 votes
5 answers
2k views

Can static and dynamically typed languages be seen as different tools for different types of jobs?

Yes, similar questions have been asked but always with the aim of finding out 'which one is better.' I'm asking because I came up as a dev primarily in JavaScript and don't really have any extensive ...
Erik  Reppen's user avatar
  • 6,253
7 votes
7 answers
5k views

How can a statically typed language support duck typing?

I understand what dynamic and static type systems are, and what duck typing is. But I don't understand how you can have a static language that supports duck typing. To my understanding only a ...
Aviv Cohn's user avatar
  • 21.4k
6 votes
3 answers
620 views

C# Dynamic types

I just read a chapter in a programming book about Dynamic types. Although they are quite neat I cant think of a single real world example where I would use them. Does anyone here actually use them and ...
Tom Squires's user avatar
  • 17.7k
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

Can dynamic typing and dynamic scoping lead to each other?

By definition, dynamic typing and dynamic scoping have different purposes. But some cases make me wonder if they can lead to each other sometimes. Dynamic typing allows a name i.e. identifier to ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 5,455
3 votes
4 answers
15k views

When to not use dynamic in C# [closed]

I'm making a class similar to the following: public class KeyValue { public readonly string key; public readonly object value; } Value could be of any object type as a result of this design. ...
9a3eedi's user avatar
  • 2,099