> Every time there’s a new kind of bug, we add a language feature to prevent that kind of bug.
That's why learning more academic, 'non-practical' aspects of computer science is sometimes beneficial. Otherwise very few will naturally develop the abstract thinking that allows them to see uncaught exception and null pointer are exactly the same 'kind of bug.'
Anyway the author got it completely upside down. The stricter mental model of static typing came first (in more academic languages like Haskell and Ocaml). Then Java etc. half-assed them. Then we have Swift and Kotlin and whatever trying to un-half-ass them while keeping some terminology from Java etc. to not scare Java etc. programmers.
That's why learning more academic, 'non-practical' aspects of computer science is sometimes beneficial. Otherwise very few will naturally develop the abstract thinking that allows them to see uncaught exception and null pointer are exactly the same 'kind of bug.'
Anyway the author got it completely upside down. The stricter mental model of static typing came first (in more academic languages like Haskell and Ocaml). Then Java etc. half-assed them. Then we have Swift and Kotlin and whatever trying to un-half-ass them while keeping some terminology from Java etc. to not scare Java etc. programmers.