Null references (oh no, not again!)

[Sean Kelly]

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> Plus, a crash *can* be nearly as bad, if not equally 
> bad, as data-corruption when it occurs in something mission-critical. This 
> is not a problem to be taken lightly. 

Mission-critical software is typically designed to terminate the instant 
an error is detected so that a back-up system can take over.  In fact, 
Erlang (designed for telephone switches) is is designed specifically 
with this in mind--any exception terminates the app.