Struct with default ctor (Was: [dmd-beta] dmd 2.064 beta take 2)

[Walter Bright]

On 5/18/2013 9:42 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Saturday, May 18, 2013 21:30:57 Walter Bright wrote:
>> On 5/18/2013 9:06 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>>> The closest that there is is
>>> C++'s references, which aren't rebindable and in many ways act more like
>>> aliases than pointers.
>>
>> You can trivially create null references in C++:
>>
>> int* p = NULL;
>> int& r = *p;
>
> Yes, but they're designed with the idea that they're non-nullable. You can't
> assign NULL to them or check if they're NULL. It's just that it's possible to
> make them NULL by the trick that you just showed.

I don't even think it's a trick, as it can easily happen unintentionally.

> Really, it's an example of
> how C++ references are more like aliases than pointers (much as they're
> pointers underneath the hood). All around, they're a bad example of a non-
> nullable pointer even though that's kind of what they're supposed to be in
> principle.
>
> - Jonathan M Davis
>