Robert Cooper has an interesting blog post on the onJava.com site, titled “Fear and Loathing in TypeLand”, in which he touches on the pros and cons of static typing in Java in comparison to dynamic typing in languages like Ruby and Groovy, with references to another blog post on the evang.eli.st site, titled “Java People Must be Stupid”
The interesing point here is it’s obvious (or at least should be) to most developers that one size does not fit all. Every language has it’s strongpoints and weaknesses. Some languages aim to be general problem solving languages, while others are geared to solving problems in a specific domain, or use a specialized approach to solve those problems. To argue that feature A is better than feature B in some cases is a non-argument if feature A allows you to solve a given problem style easier or more effectively. On the other hand, if a language has a feature that may offer a lot of flexibility but at the same time could be misused, then it will be a lot easier to shoot yourself in the foot than if it didn’t have that feature…