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

[Walter Bright]

On 1/17/2014 6:18 PM, Michel Fortin wrote:
> Implemented well, it makes it a compilation error. It works like this:
>
> - can't pass a likely-null value to a function that wants a not-null argument.
> - can't assign a likely-null value to a not-null variable.
> - can't dereference a likely-null value.
>
> You have to check for null first, and the check changes the value from
> likely-null to not-null in the branch taken when the pointer is valid.


I was talking about runtime errors, in that finding the cause of a runtime null 
failure is not harder than finding the cause of any other runtime invalid value.

We all agree that detecting bugs at compile time is better.