There are benefits of such things, especially if it can be handled by the compiler so that it does not make the code inefficient. In some cases it might even automatically convert the type, but often it is better to not do so. Furthermore, there may be an operator to ignore the type and use the representation directly, which must be specified explicitly (in order to avoid bugs in the software involving doing it by mistake).
In the example, they are (it seems) converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit, using floating point. There is the possibility of minor rounding errors, although if you are converting between Celsius and Kelvin with integers only then these rounding errors do not occur.
In some cases, a function might be able to work with any units as long as the units match.
> Public and even private functions should often avoid dealing in floats or integers alone
In some cases it makes sense to use those types directly, e.g. many kind of purely mathematical functions (such as checking if a number is prime). When dealing with physical measurements, bit fields, ID numbers, etc, it does make sense to have types specifically for those things, although the compiler should allow to override the requirement of the more specific type in specific cases by an explicit operator.
There is another article about string types, but I think there is the problem of using text-based formats, that will lead to many of these problems, including needing escaping, etc.
In the example, they are (it seems) converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit, using floating point. There is the possibility of minor rounding errors, although if you are converting between Celsius and Kelvin with integers only then these rounding errors do not occur.
In some cases, a function might be able to work with any units as long as the units match.
> Public and even private functions should often avoid dealing in floats or integers alone
In some cases it makes sense to use those types directly, e.g. many kind of purely mathematical functions (such as checking if a number is prime). When dealing with physical measurements, bit fields, ID numbers, etc, it does make sense to have types specifically for those things, although the compiler should allow to override the requirement of the more specific type in specific cases by an explicit operator.
There is another article about string types, but I think there is the problem of using text-based formats, that will lead to many of these problems, including needing escaping, etc.