I used Clipper and I am familiar with the /W switch. It was a life saver.
There is no need to tell the compiler what type your variable should be. In OOP programming this is actually a detriment. However there is a need to tell it that you will be using a variable and to let you know if you mispell one.
Clipper did it right. I always said I wish I had Clipper's syntax inside VFPs environment.
Maybe in VFP7.0 we will have this.