Part 18 - Duck Typing
 | Definition: Duck Typing Duck typing is a humorous way of describing the type non-checking system. Initially coined by Dave Thomas in the Ruby community, its premise is that (referring to a value) "if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then it is a duck". |
Even though Boo is a statically typed language, Duck Typing is a way to fake being a dynamic language. Duck typing allows variables to be recognized at runtime, instead of compile time. Though this can add a sense of simplicity, it does remove a large security barrier.
5 15 Hi there HI THERE
Duck typing is very handy if you are loading from a factory or an unpredictable dynamic library.
 | Recommendation Do not enable duck typing by default. It should only be used in a few situations. |
On a side note, The booish interpreter has duck typing enabled by default. This can be disabled by typing in interpreter.Ducky = false
Here is a practical example of where duck typing is useful.
Exercises
- Come up with another good example where duck typing is effective.
Go on to Part 19 - Using the Boo Compiler