Null references redux

[Jeremie Pelletier]

Jari-Matti Mäkelä wrote:
> Jeremie Pelletier wrote:
> 
>> Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>> union A {
>>> int foo;
>>> float bar;
>>> }
>>>
>> Yet it's the only way I know of to do bitwise logic on floating points
>> in D to extract the exponent, sign and mantissa for example.
> 
> You could add built-in methods for those operations to the float type:
> 
> float bar;
> 
> boolean s = bar.sign;
> ...

That would be so inefficient in some cases, you don't always want to 
shift the data like bar.sign implies.

> Union is very flexible, but unfortunately it's also one of the features that 
> can break the type safety in D.

That's the best thing about systems languages: to have a core set of 
rules, and to be able to purposely break them. Even better, you still 
pass go and still get $200.

I don't want a language that takes me by the hand for a walk in the 
park. I want a language that keeps me on my toes and punch me in the 
face every now and then :)