
Ask HN: Anyone ever come back _to_ strongly typed languages? - sergiotapia
I&#x27;m originally a C# developer, back in 2005.<p>I moved to Rails a long time ago, and recently (4 years ago) moved to Elixir.<p>With dotnet core, I gave it a shot and it was pretty refreshing and comforting to have the safety of types in my language again.<p>Has anyone here moved back to a typed language successfully? I&#x27;m seriously flirting with C# dotnet core.
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SamReidHughes
I've found TS a huge win over JS.

The only reason people didn't use statically typed languages in some of the
recent past was because they sucked.

Part of the reason is, it's a lot easier to play with handy ergonomic features
with a dynamically typed language (especially if you don't know the right
stuff). So dynamically typed languages took a lead for a while.

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cpursley
With your C# and Elixir functional programming backgrounds, you may want to
check out F#:

\- [https://fsharp.org/about/index.html](https://fsharp.org/about/index.html)

\- [https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/why-use-
fsharp/](https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/why-use-fsharp/)

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BWStearns
Went from Python to Haskell. About to head back to Python for new work, but I
will miss the hell out of the type system. Yeah the ecosystem isn't quite up
to snuff in Haskell but man does it cut down on bugs. Hopefully the QoL
libraries continue to evolve and eventually it becomes a no-brainer.

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valand
Do you mean statically typed? People often mistake static typing for strong
typing and vice versa.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_and_weak_typing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_and_weak_typing)

As for static typing, I moved to TS from JS and will never go back for big
projects.

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Nicksil
Non-mobile:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_and_weak_typing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_and_weak_typing)

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karterk
_raises hands_

Most of my early carrier involved PHP, JavaScript and Python. I started
appreciating type systems only when I began working on larger code bases.
Types might slow you down initially but I personally find it very comforting
to have that extra safety once the codebase crosses a certain size.

Most of the bad rep that statically typed languages get are from a bygone era
that involved a lot of typing. That has changed a lot now. With better IDEs
and languages with implicit type inference, it's a lot less verbose these
days.

I have been writing a search engine in C++
([https://github.com/typesense/typesense/](https://github.com/typesense/typesense/))
and even C++ with the auto keyword and Clion IDE is no longer as verbose. And
type safety has saved so many potential bugs.

However, for web development though, there are far less options. I hope more
dynamically typed languages allow optional types in future. That's where the
world is heading towards.

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srijanshetty
I think developers all over are converging on the idea that we need type
safety. Python has typing now, TS is JS with typing (pardon me for the
oversimplification), and golang which is taking the world by a storm is a
statically typed language.

Also, ease of typing has come a long way today with Type Inference in most
languages with C++ leading the way with auto keyword and Java implementing
local type inference.

Looks like we're Going back to the Future with static typing.

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tcbasche
Python doesn't _really_ have typing though. It's more a method of
documentation really (right now, anyway)

edit: to clarify, I wouldn't say the type hints put Python in the realm of a
statically typed lang (how could it ..) but it's a step in the right
direction.

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TheThickOfIt
I personally prefer strongly typed languages for almost everything except the
most basic of scripts. In my opinion it's very little overhead and helps me
keep track of what I'm working with.

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imhoguy
Python and Ruby are dynamic and strongly typed. Possibly you meant static
typing.

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verdverm
Not so much back, but use both daily. Mainly Golang, JS/TS,prefer typed
languages bfor production, dynamic for early work.

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UK-Al05
I never left

