Via Martin Fowler:
"""
Static types give me the same feeling of safety as the announcement that my seat cushion can be used as a floatation device.

--Don Roberts
"""

Most people seem to think of static typing mainly as a safety net. I even had used that same term before. Well, as it turns out static typing is mainly about providing two things:

• better tools: editing tools (think code completion), code navigation tools (think 'show type hierarchy', 'call hierarchy', 'goto base method'), refactoring tools (think 'rename', 'change signature');
• better performance: compilers, optimizers and the runtime environment can do a much better job when type information is available (and do it much faster);

And that's why boo is statically typed, because is the whole experience that counts.

Thank you Lessig!