I read a couple of weblogs recently written by Bruce Eckel (Thinking in C++, Thinking in Java ) and Robert C. Martin (editor of the C++ Report) who were formerly static type language nazis that have now gone to the "dark side".

They both were singing the praises of Python in their web logs
[link|http://mindview.net/WebLog/log-0025|Bruce's WebLog] and
[link|http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=4639|Martin's WebLog] and are almost advocating the abandonment of strictly typed languages for Python and C for the sake of faster software development.

They basically say that the eXtreme Programming (XP) movement with the religious dedication to test cases has made static type checking in computer languages irrelevant. You need to test your code through test cases, and if a type problem occurs, your testing should catch it.

It just seems strange to me, that after having been sold the need for strict typing in languages that these two would do an about face.

Perhaps they're just recognizing the NBT (Next Big Thing) and trying to make their segway into it. I don't know, but I'm kind of disingenuous about this.

Glen Austin