dereferencing null

[Tove]

On Saturday, 3 March 2012 at 10:13:34 UTC, bearophile wrote:
> Walter:
>
>> Adding in software checks for null pointers will dramatically 
>> slow things down.
>
> Define this use of "dramatically" in a more quantitative and 
> objective way, please. Is Java "dramatically" slower than C++/D 
> here?
>
> Bye,
> bearophile

It's not a fair comparison, because the Java JIT will optimize 
the null checks away...

Signal handlers might be the answer though, if the same behavior 
can be guaranteed on all major platforms...