Posts Tagged ‘Python’
C# Static Dynamic Typing
New for C# 4.0 is the concept of ‘Dynamic lookup’, which aims to add ‘dynamic typing’ support to the C# programming language. If you’re not sure on what that is, it compares to ’static typing’, where you can define ‘types’ which are checked when you compile code. Dynamic typing means no checks are made at compile-time, making the code, theoretically, much more flexible.
Examples of dynamic typed languages are Ruby and Python, although there are a lot. It seems that Microsoft, in my humble opinion, have seen another ’shiny object’ that they’d like to add to their language spec, so they’re creating a kludge to add it. Sometimes though, restrictions are a good thing…
If you take, for example, a team of programmers that understand a paradigm. Using a different paradigm ‘just because’, isn’t generally a Good Idea(tm). I consider real programming to be a creative process, no different to painting or sculpture, and limits are always good in any creative process.
I can hear people balking at this idea, that we would impose limits for the sake of it. Well, if you had a studio and were to create some ‘art’, and somebody asked you to ‘create something’. What would you come up with? Defining limits beforehand really focuses the mind to what you’re doing, and the starting-point of; “using oil paint and canvas with only 4 colours, represent how you feel about rock music” is much more emotive, inspiring and creative.
Of course, what I mean by this glib example is that often restrictions *inspire* the creative process, not hinder it. Constantly adjusting something to be a ‘one size fits all’ dilutes it..
It’s often said that C takes an hour to learn, and a lifetime to master. C is very small in its implementation, although the power is all in its simplicity and limits…
