Guaranteed correctness has a cost in the form of extra specification needed to get things done. For example, many type errors are essentially noise: they do not catch real bugs, and they create needless busy-work for the programmer to correct them.
example:
function stringify(FooObj object): return object.toString()
Now suppose we do some refactoring somewhere, and we want to call stringify not with a FooObj but with a BarObj. Since we have defined stringify as taking a FooObj, the compiler whines until we update the definition. However, depending on your philosophy, this error is nothing more than noise, because stringify would work fine on a BarObj.
Pragmatists may wish to forgo such safety in favor of greater flexibility:
function stringify(object): return object.toString()
This is the essence of liberal programming: an emphasis on flexibility and minimal specification, at the cost of reduced safety guarantees.
example:
function stringify(FooObj object): return object.toString()
Now suppose we do some refactoring somewhere, and we want to call stringify not with a FooObj but with a BarObj. Since we have defined stringify as taking a FooObj, the compiler whines until we update the definition. However, depending on your philosophy, this error is nothing more than noise, because stringify would work fine on a BarObj.
Pragmatists may wish to forgo such safety in favor of greater flexibility:
function stringify(object): return object.toString()
This is the essence of liberal programming: an emphasis on flexibility and minimal specification, at the cost of reduced safety guarantees.