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

[Walter Bright]

On 1/18/2014 2:43 PM, bearophile wrote:
> Walter Bright:
>
>> The point being, there is a whole universe of subset types. You cannot begin
>> to predict all the use cases, let alone come up with a special syntax for each.
>
> On the other hand there are some groups of types that are both very common, lead
> to a good percentage of bugs and troubles, and need a refined type semantic &
> management to be be handled well (so it's hard to implement them as library types).

That would be a problem with D's ability to define library types, and we should 
address that rather than take the Go approach and add more magic to the compiler.


> Currently you can't implement
> "good enough" not-nullable reference types or ranged integers in D).

This is not at all clear.


> 4) Give up and accept to use a simpler language, with a simpler compiler, that
> is more easy to create and develop.

Applications are complicated. A simple language tends to push the complexity 
into the source code. Java is a fine example of that.