I assert that Perl's type system is overall stronger than C's or Java's, even if it's limited in the number of types it has.
Ah, here's where we part company. C and Java have many types (unlimited in fact, go ahead make your own structs, unions, etc.). And they also do their type checking at compile time. Sure, if you want you can subvert the type system in a way that you couldn't with an ML or Haskell, but its much harder to do it accidently. Fewer types is synonymous with having fewer proofs of the programs behavior. I like perl as much as the next guy (heck, counting just now, I've got 6 books on my bookshelf with "perl" in the title), but all else being equal (i.e. same quality programmers, etc.), if I had to choose between being hooked up to a heart/lung machine running Java, and one running Perl, I'd pick Java. I wonder what they really use? If we knew the answer we'd probably all shudder. Now the question becomes, if I was going to design the heart/lung machine I'd be using on myself, what language would I use? I'd probably want to create some sort of very minimal strongly-typed hybrid lisp/haskell, in which I'd proven the compiler correct with some sort of computer algebra system.

If you want more typing theory discussion than you can shake a stick at, I'd recommend some of these threads...

Why type systems are interesting
Why type systems are interesting - part II
Why type systems are interesting - part III: latent types

-- All code is 100% tested and functional unless otherwise noted.

In reply to Re^5: "strong typing" is potentially ambiguous by sleepingsquirrel
in thread (Completely OT) - Hero(i)n programming language on Slashdot by dragonchild

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.