but I'm really scratching my head at the huge fuss made over static/dynamic typed languages.
Since the languages we're talking about are OO, shouldn't any properly designed system (imo) be setup so that for the programmer they don't have to worry about the type of the language?
Example: In Java, if I get back an SQL object, I don't have to know the type (Integer, Float, ect) to shove it back to the client, just call the getString() on it and the object will handle it for me.
(note: I'll admit that Java and C++ both fail at this - mostly because they were derived from C, which have primitive datatypes and is statically typed. But in both cases, what they've added in, their new stuff, is set up so that the programmer really doesn't have to worry about the type.)
Frankly, the further and further I get into OO, I'm beginning to see that primitive datatypes are a bad idea. They're a pain in the neck, get in the way and cause problems.