Nope, you're spot on: better refactoring and increased correctness are the biggest motivators for type systems to exist... I don't even know what the author means by suggesting that a strong type system avoids code duplication (as someone who has used type systems for decades)!! Can someone illuminate?
Maybe the author is referring to generics - compile time generated code. But I'm with you. Code correctness is easily the biggest benefit for me, followed by fearless refactoring. The difference between refactoring a large Python project, and a Haskell project is staggering.
Good type systems don't avoid code duplication in themselves, but they make it possible to write highly polymorphic code safely. More safely, in fact, than less polymorphic code.
Nope, you're spot on: better refactoring and increased correctness are the biggest motivators for type systems to exist... I don't even know what the author means by suggesting that a strong type system avoids code duplication (as someone who has used type systems for decades)!! Can someone illuminate?