Advantages of Soft Typing This is a continuation of this discussion. The main points for soft typing are as follows. * Compile time type checks. Soft typing can catch the same amount of provable errors at compile time as static typing. * Automatic downcasts. Downcasts are done automatically assuming the program passes type checking. The main argument for explicit casts is that it provides the programmer with more information, but this is a misnomer. One does not have to write down information for it to be shown to him, so long as said information is inferrable. Note: whether or not you believe OCaml doesn't have casting is irrelevant, simply assume that, when I refer to casting, I also mean situations in which it's emulated. * Unimposing. Unless a piece of code is provably incorrect at compile time, the compiler can insert runtime checks.
Researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer found that students remember more via taking notes longhand rather than on a laptop. It has to do with what happens when you're forced to slow down.