Null references redux

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> Walter Bright wrote:
>>> Even forcing an explicit initializer doesn't actually solve the 
>>> problem - my experience with such features is programmers simply 
>>> insert any old value to get the code to pass the compiler, even 
>>> programmers who know it's a bad idea do it anyway.
>>
>> I think you're starting to be wrong at the point where you don't 
>> realize that many bugs come from references that people have forgotten 
>> to initialize. Once you acknowledge those, you will start to realize 
>> that a reference that must compulsively be initialized is valuable.
> 
> The problem is it's worse to force people to provide an initializer. 

You're not forcing. You just change the default. Really, it's *exactly* 
the same deal as with = void that you're so happy about.

Andrei