Strongly typed vs. untyped programming languages
I am definitely a big fan of Java, which is a strongly typed programming language. There is something clean and tidy about using JSPs, servlets, and JDBC database connections (along with custom Java code, of course) to build web applications. I seldom use EJBs, JNDI and some other J2EE technologies, but the "lean and mean" combination of JSPs/servlets/JDBC is a pleasure to work with.
Still, whenever I do a major project in an untyped language like Common Lisp or Smalltalk, I see a personal productivity gain of about a factor of two improvement over statically typed languages like Java.
Still, unless you take into account available class libraries, you are only looking at part of the picture. I really love the Common LISP language but I immediately rule out Common LISP for projects that need technologies like SOAP, WSDL, etc. that are either not well supported in a portable way or are only available on specific vendor's platforms. The situation is better with Smalltalk: the free and excellent Squeak environment has some support for web services, etc. The commercial VisualWorks platform has every web based technology that you or I could name implemented. Note: I am a VisualWorks VAR, so I might be a little biased :-)
Anyway, programming language selection should be made, in my opinion, based on which language works best for a specific application. By "works best", I usually mean which supports the lowest cost for development, deployment, and long term maintenance.
10:23:28 AM 
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