UX - Parameter Counting - Gradual Compiling

In JavaScript, I wrote f(x,y,name,z)

but intended to write f(x,y.name,z)

A long debugging session was required to discover that z was undefined.

I gave 4 params, but f expected only 3.

The 4th parameter defaulted to undefined.

A simple compiler-check (count parameters), would have caught this typo. Instead it caused a mystery.

Why?

I would guess that parameter defaulting was inserted into the language in-search-for user-friendliness.

This is not user friendly.

Full-blown type-checking would not have been necessary here.

Just parameter-counting.

Hmm, we use a parser to check for stupid errors.

We don’t waste time waiting for a full type-check, if the parser caught stupid errors.

Maybe a pre-check pass should be inserted between the parser and the full-blown semantics checker?

How does this affect language design and user-friendliness? And, gradual typing?

Maybe languages shoud be structured to allow experimentation, then, whine about “not enough information (detail) to compile” later?

Gradual Compiling