RE: [xml-dev] Cranky old farts and the static typing critics (was Re: [xml-dev] Ten new XQuery, XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Working Drafts)

["Dare Obasanjo" <dareo@microsoft.com>]

Static typing is not the same as strong typing. It's hard to have a
discussion if people can't get figure out exactly what they are talking
about. As for static vs. dynamic typing, a number of folks I know who
work with XML seem to like the capabilities of strongly typed dynamic
languages just as much or more than strongly typed static languages. 

In the context of XQuery, which is what this thread was originally about
users can have both as Micheal Rys pointed out the working group has
taken care to design the language in that way. I can as easily write 

  
 define function summary($teacher as element()*) as xs:integer {
count($teacher/student) } 

as I can 


  import schema namespace myns ="http://www.example.org"; 
            at "http://www.example.org/school.xsd";

  define function summary($teacher as element(myns:teacher)*) as
xs:integer { count($teacher/myns:student) } 

-- 
PITHY WORDS OF WISDOM 
Mincing your words is a good thing because you may have to eat them
later.                                             

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights. 

>  
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Champion [mailto:mc@xegesis.org] 
> Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 12:01 PM
> To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> 
> 
> > <Quote>
> > XML-DEV is a festival of cranky old men complaining about 
> the "youth 
> > of today" and how things were better in the XML world in 
> the old days.
> > </Quote>
> 
> http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/08/FutureLanguage
> "there's some powerful intellectual ferment in progress out 
> there. This may be the golden age of programming, as Paul 
> Graham argues, and maybe everything we thought we knew about 
> strong typing is wrong."
> 
> Just who is a cranky old fart these days, the "XML is just 
> text, dammit" 
> SGML dinosaurs, or the "Static type checking will solve your 
> problems" 
> young turks?  As former young turk who is now a cranky old 
> dinosaur once put it back in the Dark Ages, "Don't speak too 
> soon, for the wheel's still in spin, and the times they are 
> a' changin."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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