From: Gavin Kistner <gavin@...>
Date: 2005-02-01T00:05:19+09:00
Subject: Strong/Loose Typing [was Re: Ten Things Every Java Programmer Should Know About Ruby]

> Florian Gross <flgr@ccan.de> wrote:
>> Not having your Objects changing types all the time without you
>> noticing. If you forget to initialize a field in PHP it will be
>> converted to zero or an empty String if necessary thus shadowing your
>> bug. Strong typing usually is a requirement for languages where OOP
>> works well.
>
> In Ruby, objects pass for different types all the time.  In my own
> recent Ruby code I've mistakenly passed in the wrong types but didn't
> notice because the types responded to the same methods.

Ob Javascript reference:

In Javascript, the same sort of thing happens. Take a JS-HTML example:

myObject.background = 'red';
myObject.style.background_color = 'red';

Both will 'work' (not throw an error), but not do what you wanted. JS 
silently creates a new property on the fly, all helpful-like.

JS is loosely typed. With ruby, you get a convenient blend of dynamism 
with strong typing. Not as ridiculously rigid as a strongly-typed 
language, not as loose as something like JS.