in reply to Re^5: Static typing is mostly a waste of time
in thread Static typing is mostly a waste of time

The weak part comes from the fact that you can convert from one type to another with no problem.
But I thought you were claiming that "Assignment is also polymorphic". Why doesn't that apply for C as well?
  • Comment on Re^6: Static typing is mostly a waste of time

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Re^7: Static typing is mostly a waste of time
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Apr 13, 2005 at 17:27 UTC
    Interesting argument. The difference is that I cannot reconsitute the original value to any degree. If I convert from a double to an int and back again, I still have the same value (albeit with rounding errors). Same thing between chars and longs, etc. With Perl, if I apply scalar context to an array, I cannot retrieve the original array in any way.

    My wife's blog

[reply]
      #include<stdio.h>

main()
{
    char scalar;
    void *tmp;
    char *arr = "abcde";

    scalar = arr; //convert array to scalar
    tmp = scalar;
    arr = tmp; //convert scalar back to array to see if we can
               //retrieve the original array in any way

    printf("%s\n",arr);  //Whoops, Segfault.  Can't reconsitute.
}

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      I love Perl. You love Perl. Millions of people love and enjoy Perl. It can be used sucessfully for a myriad of different tasks. People can make money using Perl. Perl takes what is good from other languages, and omits the bad. Perl is pragmatic. Perl is popular. Perl is good. But can we admit that any attempt at describing Perl's type system as anything other than an ad-hoc mess is bound to result in inconsistancy and frustration?
[reply]
        I think you are right, which is frustrating to me for some reason. *shrugs* Oh, well.

        My wife's blog

[reply]

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