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Re: Re: Types in Mathematica

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg62879] Re: [mg62805] Re: Types in Mathematica
• From: Ed Peschko <esp5 at pge.com>
• Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 23:12:23 -0500 (EST)
• References: <dlp2ci$le$1@smc.vnet.net> <200511200950.EAA04496@smc.vnet.net> <dls4vp$mmc$1@smc.vnet.net> <dm1ak3$i1n$1@smc.vnet.net> <dmjrb8$5u6$1@smc.vnet.net> <dmm2tp$nmo$1@smc.vnet.net> <dmrt6i$6le$1@smc.vnet.net> <200512032352.SAA15917@smc.vnet.net> <dmui9j$ml5$1@smc.vnet.net> <200512051841.NAA21160@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 01:41:14PM -0500, Paul Abbott wrote:
> In article <dmui9j$ml5$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
>  Sseziwa Mukasa <mukasa at jeol.com> wrote:
> 
> > The ever contrarian Larry Wall of course decided that Perl, the 
> > sin qua non of weak typing, would attempt to resolve that ambiguity.  
> > The low regard with which Perl programmers are generally held in the 
> > Computer Science community, a special circle of hell previously reserved 
> > for Visual Basic users, is a by product of that fact.

That 'special circle of hell' that you speak of is news to me. I've never 
heard of it; I know that perl has its detractors, but for every detractor, there's 
a fervent supporter on communities like slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org) and
digg (http://www.digg.org).

As for an impression of mathematica users, I've never seen one (positive or negative).
Mathematica seems to be off this particular map.

As for weak typing, its not necessarily a bad thing - its a damn *productive* thing 
in the case of perl. That being said, optional, strong(er) typing wouldn't be that
bad an item to have. Perl6 is adding this, but its a long, slow slog; perl6 isn't expected
to be out for a couple of years, at the minimum.

Ed

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: Re: Types in Mathematica
    • From: Zhengji Li <zhengji.li@Gmail.com>

• References:
  • Re: Types in Mathematica
    • From: Paul Abbott <paul@physics.uwa.edu.au>