RE: [xml-dev] XQuery types was Re: [xml-dev] Yet another plea for XUpdate...

Jonathan,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Robie 
>
> I always thought that catching errors at compile time optimized both 
> programmer efficiency and machine efficiency.
> 
> It optimizes machine efficiency because the query doesn't 
> have to look at 
> all that data to know that there's an error. It optimizes 
> programmer time 
> because the programmer does not need to go out and write a 
> million test 
> cases, deal with the calls from the field from someone whose 
> data looks 
> different from the test data, etc.

I don't for a moment dispute the usefulness of types, just /static/
typing. Static typing as aid to programmer effectiveness is something of
a myth, tho' it's very handy if you're a compiler or a runtime. Systems
do get build with dynamically typed languages and seem to work fine;
notably these languages are notoriously productive. If I'm wrong about
this, that static typing vastly improves the lot of programmers, I'm
happy to be corrected. 	

Bill de hÓra