dereferencing null

[Chad J]

On 03/07/2012 10:08 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Wednesday, March 07, 2012 20:44:59 Chad J wrote:
>> On 03/07/2012 10:21 AM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
>>> You can use sentinels other than null.
>>>
>>> -Steve
>>
>> Example?
>
> Create an instance of the class which is immutable and represents an invalid
> value. You could check whether something is that value with the is operator,
> since there's only one of it. You could even make it a derived class and have
> all of its functions throw a particular exception if someone tries to call
> them.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis

Makes sense.  Awfully labor-intensive though.  Doesn't work well on 
classes that can't be easily altered.  That is, it violates this:
> - Do not modify the implementation of UnreliableResource.  It's not always possible.

But, maybe it can be turned it into a template and made to work for 
arrays too...