The idea of compile-time checks should be familiar to everybody, though some languages enforce them more rigorously than others. The rigorous ones are sometimes referred to (derisively) as "bondage-and-discipline" languages, and their detractors bemoan the restrictions that supposedly get in the way of writing perfectly good code. I think of this as the "Flying Wallendas" attitude to programming: that walking a tightrope without a safety net makes you less likely to fall. That may be true, but when you do fall (and as a programmer, you will), the results are somewhat more distressing...