By reading my posts you may think that I'm against dynamic typing. I am not. I am just (very) unconvinced by its promises. Dynamic typing is not the next big thing. It is just a brand new way of making the same old mistakes. Tenfold.
One of these mistakes it to believe that building computer programs is - or at least should be - a simple task. It is not. It requires deep understanding of the problem at hand. In turn, this requires to build an abstract model of the reality, and implement this abstraction. There is no reason that building a computer program should be significantly simpler than building a bridge. You may throw a little amount of plywood to allow you to cross the stream at the back of your house, but to build the Golden Gate Bridge, you do not simply assemble iron bars and test along the way that they still support your weight.
What I don't like is the way the dynamic typing zealots - which are probably in their very early twenties - are pushing their toy, and calling everybody else dinosaurs, afraid of change, blocked in their ivory towers.
Dynamic typing has intrinsic weaknesses. Weaknesses that computer science has tried hard to eradicate, and we the dinosaurs are now witnessing their resurgence as they are hyped as the new great leap forward. Yes we are afraid that we'll have to deal again with self-modifying code. Yes we are afraid that duck typing is yet another way of reliving the glorious days of DLL hell.
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