[TYPES] Types of expressions in dynamic languages: "un-typed" or "uni-typed"?

Siraaj Khandkar <siraaj-oSrDJBeMSu/[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.science.types
Message-ID <[email protected]>
[ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]

We're having a discussion with a friend regarding the most accurate way
to describe the typing situation in Python.

His view is that Python data are typed and variables un-typed, moreover,
he proposes that the terms "un-typed" and "uni-typed" are practically
equivalent.

At first it seemed somewhat reasonable to me, but the more I thought
about it, the more my mind rejected both, the equivalence and the
phrasing.

The idea of uni-typing is that there's a set of types that the runtime
supports and expressions can be composed of any members of that set,
thus forming a single type, which is that set. This idea seems to
describe the situation in a useful (for analysis) and an enlightening
way, while the term "un-typed" does not seem to say anything useful.

I'm also feeling uneasy about the phrasing: un-typed _variables_. That
is, data and _expressions_ have types, but individual variables are just
not something you can make a claim about outside of a context of an
expression.

We'd appreciate very much if the enlightened folks of this list would
provide some input on this.

-- 
Siraaj Khandkar
.o.  o.o  ..o  o..  .o.
..o  .oo  o.o  .oo  ..o
ooo  .o.  .oo  oo.  ooo
lmpx.com only provides a reader for public news (NNTP) servers. It is not affiliated with the servers or forums shown here and is not responsible for the content of articles, which is written by their respective authors.