That there exist errors that cannot be type-checked makes type-checking irrelevant ? I dont quite see why exhaustiveness is a pre-requisite for relevance or attention. Is that a thumb rule you use for other things as well ?
I am not sure if type-checking even aspires to be exhaustive. As long as it can detect my stupid and costly mistakes at a cost that is cheaper than the cost of the mistakes, I am happy. But I can understand that for people who do not make costly and compile time checkable mistakes, it might not be worth it.
@tedunangst Got you. Your second paragraph in the previous comment threw me off. It does read like you consider type-checking unworthy of attention because it cannot catch all possible errors. Agree with your comment about people overstating their case. I think the noisiest of both the camps (if one can call it that) are equally guilty.
If the original post does not mean to convey "I don't need this because I have ghc", well, it kinda sounds like it does. I didn't say type checking was irrelevant. I said its merits are irrelevant in a discussion about how to find bugs that have already been checked in. Unless the devs are really sloppy, such code has already been compiled and run through whatever more or less exhaustive checking that entails.
Type checking is useful. I like it. But I don't like people talking about it like it's magic pixie dust.
I am not sure if type-checking even aspires to be exhaustive. As long as it can detect my stupid and costly mistakes at a cost that is cheaper than the cost of the mistakes, I am happy. But I can understand that for people who do not make costly and compile time checkable mistakes, it might not be worth it.
@tedunangst Got you. Your second paragraph in the previous comment threw me off. It does read like you consider type-checking unworthy of attention because it cannot catch all possible errors. Agree with your comment about people overstating their case. I think the noisiest of both the camps (if one can call it that) are equally guilty.