From: Bryan Murphy <bryan@...>
Date: 2002-10-01T12:38:20+09:00
Subject: Re: thoughts on typelessness

>
>
>In Ruby, the attitude always has to be "you can ...", with the disclaimer that
>"you can't guarantee ...".  If you're writing code for yourself, you trust your
>own "interfaces" and use them to organise code and communicate intention
>better.  If you're coding with other people, you obviously need to trust that
>they will not drive on the wrong side of the road just because they can.
>
>But your points certainly do drive a wedge further between mixins and
>interfaces, the latter no longer being considered a Java specialty.
>
>Regards,
>Gavin
>
>  
>
Yeah, and I think that gets to the core issue why everybody keeps 
talking about types and static typing.  Static typing, contracts, 
interfaces, it can all be summed up in one thing:  people wanting to 
guarantee a minimum amount of functionality.  Is that a Ruby thing?  I 
really don't know, but it's basically what people are clamoring for.  If 
we can solve this problem while still keeping Ruby Ruby, that might go a 
long way to bringing these threads to an end! :)

What's the solution?  I'm really not sure.  I'm not a language designer, 
but I'm thinking about it.  If I have any good ideas, maybe one day I 
will send them.

Bryan