Ask HN: Why all the hubub about type casting?

Hey Nerds,

I'm a pretty young-to-average hacker, at 23, and I'm curious to get explanations on why so many job specs stress experience in both static and dynamically typed languages. Now I totally understand that there is a major difference between the two language designs, and you end up doing a lot of different things depending on the language. However, they aren't so mutually exclusive as to say that experience in one doesn't apply to the other. So why do job listings seem to make such a differentiation?

Context: I prefer to script in Javascript and PHP. And I use lots of mixed types. I find it to be the most extendable and convenient. But I also have built apps using Java and Objective C, which are far more strictly typed. And while different, I wouldn't say that I specialize in one or the other, they are just very different.

If you have written a dev spec distinguishing between language typing, what were you trying to do?

2 comments

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viraptor 11y ago ↗

It's a different way of thinking. If you don't see much difference, I would say you should go deeper into internal implementation of things like mocks and various "clever hacks". There are things that are easier to implement if you're not restricted by the language. Then again most things are simpler to test if you are restricted.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "dev spec". If you mean spec for hiring a new dev - most likely it's about the technology that already exists in the company. If you mean spec for a new project, it's either lead's preference or the language is chosen for compatibility with other components.

If it's a completely new project and spec mentions typing, it's likely a mistake...

[dead] ossreality 11y ago ↗

"type casting" has a pretty specific meaning to be using like this...