From: Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@...>
Date: 2006-11-02T20:24:34+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby programming best practice

On 11/1/06, Shannon Fang <xrfang@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Experts, please tell us, your best practice, facing this "intrinsic" problem
> of dynamic languages...

Use Unit Tests.

With automated unit testing, the benefits of static typing, bounds checking,
null checking etc. start to disappear, as you typically write tests for these
scenarios anyway.

So dynamic languages with unit testing can do away with these features
and get better productivity bonuses, and more flexible coding styles
for no cost.

It does mean that you are committed to using unit tests though for any
significant work. In reality *all* significant projects really need
them, but you will miss them earlier in a dynamic language.