That... is pretty much exactly the list of problems I've expected out of optional typing.
I think other dynamic-type language communities should read this and think really hard. I've said before, I'd rather see a language become the best $LANGUAGE it can possibly be, for whatever that $LANGUAGE is, than try to bolt things on that pull it away from its core focus. Dynamically-typed languages are dynamically typed. Become the best dynamically-typed language you can be, don't bolt less-than-half-assed static typing on to the side. The sum ends up being less than the parts.
And if that means the next ten years is the language slowly fading into history... that is the destiny for all of us anyhow. Let it be with a fantastic dynamic language that was the best it could be, let it be a language that people speak wistfully of twenty years later. Don't make it be remembered as a Frankensteinien monstrosity as it tried to stay current.
I think other dynamic-type language communities should read this and think really hard. I've said before, I'd rather see a language become the best $LANGUAGE it can possibly be, for whatever that $LANGUAGE is, than try to bolt things on that pull it away from its core focus. Dynamically-typed languages are dynamically typed. Become the best dynamically-typed language you can be, don't bolt less-than-half-assed static typing on to the side. The sum ends up being less than the parts.
And if that means the next ten years is the language slowly fading into history... that is the destiny for all of us anyhow. Let it be with a fantastic dynamic language that was the best it could be, let it be a language that people speak wistfully of twenty years later. Don't make it be remembered as a Frankensteinien monstrosity as it tried to stay current.