Non-null objects, the Null Object pattern, and T.init

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On Friday, 17 January 2014 at 03:02:57 UTC, inout wrote:
> On Friday, 17 January 2014 at 02:52:15 UTC, bearophile wrote:
>> deadalnix:
>>
>>> Most object don't have a sensible init value. That is just 
>>> hiding the problem under the carpet.
>>
>> If there's desire to solve this problem I think that improving 
>> the type system to avoid nulls where they are not desired is 
>> better than having an init object.
>>
>> So aren't not-nullable pointers and references a better 
>> solution?
>>
>> Bye,
>> bearophile
>
> This! Also, if anything, it's better to turn `init` into a 
> method
> rather than an object. The following would work all of a sudden:
>
> class Foo
> {
>     Bar bar = new Bar();
>     int i = 42;
>
>     Foo() {
>        assert(bar !is null);
>        assert(i == 42);
>     }
>
>     // auto-generated
>     private final void init(Foo foo) {
>
>        foo.bar = new Bar();
>        foo.i = 42;
>     }
> }
That would be indeed a nice solution and would break AFAIK 
nothing. :)