> We argue that only experts should use scripting languages (scripts) for computer programming because beginners cannot understand how dangerous the flexibility of scripts can be. For example, the assignment of variables with the same name to different types is often a cause of misunderstandings and failures. To make this problem even worse, failures due to wrong types are not captured at runtime---certainly not at compilation time (there is no compilation time in scripts). In other words, the interpreter is too permissive. The scientist, if aware (rarely the case with students), will investigate the numerical output and, after much work, will find the source of the error. Therefore, this situation is not ideal. To exemplify, the following is allowed in Python (or Julia---similar syntax): > >``` >a = 1.0 >a = "a" # OK in Python or Julia >```
Since I wanted the best of both interactive data exploration and statically compiled Go, I made the Go interpreter https://github.com/gijit/gi Your students could use it to learn Go interactively at the REPL. Type errors like the example above will be caught: ``` $ *gi -q* gi> *a := 1.0* elapsed: '121.083µs' gi> *a = "a"* oops: 'problem detected during Go static type checking: 'where error? err = '1:5: cannot convert "a" (untyped string constant) to float64''' on input 'a = "a"' gi> ``` -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "golang-nuts" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to golang-nuts+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
