Static vs. Dynamic (brief follow-up rant)

This isn’t an “either or” choice in my book. I feel that all too frequently, people treat both options as “equally valid” and move forward with whatever they are familiar with. The argument for dynamic typing holds as much authority and merit as creationism, and unfortunately, coders & academics spend far too much time humoring it.

Programming languages are UI, not unlike the applications, web-sites, and operating systems you know & love. So why is it we have zero-tolerance for applications that let you shoot yourself in the foot, but ignore the short-comings of programming languages that exhibit the exact same usability problem?

It’s due to lack of practical tooling, and lack of understanding. Until we fix these problems, programmers continue to build software-skyscrapers out of mud and clay, even though steel and heavy machinery are available. Schools and pundits just don’t bother spending any time teaching how or why we should be using our more modern solutions.