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Does JavaScript Make Developers Love Static Typing?
Many developers swear by statically typed languages such as C#, Java, C++, Go, Swift and Rust. Could experience with JavaScript be a reason for this?
I am generally a big fan of dynamically typed languages, or at least so I thought. In fact I have written a number of stories praising the virtues of dynamic typing:
However, as I have been spending time getting to grips with JavaScript I am desperately starting to wish I had proper types. That has made me reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of static typing in different contexts.
Let me give some background. My favorite language is Julia, which is dynamically typed. When I write Julia code, I tend to follow a REPL based approach. For those unfamiliar with REPL based development I tried to give readers an idea: Test-Driven vs REPL-Driven Development.
Using Julia has influenced a lot of what I think about software development. However what gives a certain blindspot is that I have not used…
