[PD-dev] strings

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
> On Dec 18, 2006, at 12:42 PM, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
>> Non-sequitur, there are languages that have quite strict and elaborate type 
>> checking and yet which support implicit casts. For example, C++.

> C/C++ is not very strict.  It allows you to just change what you call a chunk 
> of memory without complaint.

Ok, I spoke too quick. I didn't want to say strict. I shouldn't have said 
strict. Instead of strict I wanted to say that the type checking happens 
"all of the time".

I thought up some kind of classification of type systems, avoiding to call 
them strong/weak or static/dynamic because those words are confusing.

1. Typed expressions: each piece of code that can give a value, has a 
type that can be figured out at compile-time.

2. Typed variables/parameters: declarations allow runtime checks but not 
compile-time checks.

3. Typed values: variables don't have types, they can contain any value, 
but every value has a type.

4. Typed uses: values don't have types, a type is a way of using a value.

Strictness, in the sense of forbidding things to the user, is not on that 
scale, it's another aspect. A well-balanced strictness allows one to 
bypass the system whenever needed, but without being too error-prone. 
However it's difficult to say what it means to "bypass the system" for all 
four typing categories at once, or even within one category.

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| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 - http://artengine.ca/matju
| Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC Canada