Alan Kay and OO Programming
>> Extreme late-binding is important because Kay argues that it permits you to not commit too early to the "one true way" of solving an issue (and thus makes it easier to change those decisions), but can also allow you to build systems that you can change while they are still running!<p>>> Binding can also refer to binding a variable type to data.<p>As someone who has over 15 years of experience going back and forth between statically typed and dynamically typed programming languages (but who has settled on dynamically typed languages in the last 4 years), this statement resonates very strongly with me.
Also, it ties in perfectly with my philosophy of focusing on integration tests instead of unit tests; the idea that you should lock down the features of your system but keep the flexibility to move around the all the internal implementation is critical.<p>It's a shame to see the new generation of developers moving back to statically typed languages (e.g. TypeScript) instead of actually trying to understand how to use dynamically typed languages properly. The obsession around achieving 100% unit tests coverage is equally shameful.<p>Many of the people who came up with or promoted the idea of dynamically typed languages had decades of experience working with punchcards, assembly code and statically typed languages; they were onto something.
Why does the new generation so easily discard this vast amount of wisdom?