I want programmers to stop using subtyping, yet I keep bringing it up, in article after article. Partly that is because it is very hard to avoid subtyping-related issues in Scala, and I find myself concerned with Scala when I ought to be devoting mental cycles to simpler, more powerful languages. But that may simply feed into what I suppose is the greater reason:
Subtyping is an amusing puzzle for my mind. I enjoy the mental diversion of the needlessly complex puzzle of practical programming techniques making use of subtyping.
I can justify this self-gratification by saying to myself, “the more they read about what subtyping really means, the more their desire to avoid this mess will grow”. I think this is more rationalization than honest motivation for myself, though I do think those who learn more about subtyping are more likely to avoid it, just as those who learn more about typing are more likely to advocate it.
Yet, it does have a kind of beauty. So I take it out here and there, and appreciate its facets for a while. Then I carefully return it to its display case, lest I am afflicted with the subtyping bug again.
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