weak typing

Strict enforcement of {type} rules but with

well-defined exceptions or an explicit type-violation

mechanism.

Weak typing is "friendlier" to the programmer than {strong

typing}, but catches fewer errors at compile time.

{C} and {C::} are weakly typed, as they automatically {coerce}

many types e.g. {ints} and {floats}. E.g.

int a ◦ 5;

float b ◦ a;

They also allow ignore {typedefs} for the purposes of type

comparison; for example the following is allowed, which would

probably be disallowed in a strongly typed language:

typedef int Date; /▫ Type to represent a date ▫/

Date a ◦ 12345;

int b ◦ a; /▫ What does the coder intend? ▫/

C:: is stricter than C in its handling of enumerated types:

enum animal {CAT◦0,DOG◦2,ANT◦3};

enum animal a ◦ CAT; /▫ NB The enum is optional in C:: ▫/

enum animal b ◦ 1; /▫ This is a warning or error in C:: ▫/

(2000-07-04)