Introducing Nullable Reference Types in C#. Is there hope for D, too?

[codephantom]

On Wednesday, 22 November 2017 at 13:21:05 UTC, Timon Gehr wrote:
> BTW of course you must realize that you can make the compiler 
> brutally obsolete by just quickly writing down the most 
> efficient possible correct machine code in a hex editor, so I'm 
> not too sure why you participate in a discussion on the forums 
> of a compiled language at all.
>

I've participated in order to counter the proposition put forward 
in the subject of this thread.

The core language of D does NOT need what C# is proposing - that 
is my view.

If, over time, a large number of D programmers have the same 
laissez-faire approach towards checking for null, as C# 
programmers, then maybe they'll start demanding the same thing - 
but even then, I'll argue the same points I've argued thus far.

I also think that relying too much on sophisticated IDE's and AI 
like compilers, really changes the way you think about and write 
code. I don't rely on either. Perhaps that's why I've never 
considered nulls to be an issue. I take proactive steps to 
protect my code, before the compiler ever sees it. And actually, 
I cannot recall any null related error in any code I've deployed. 
It's just never been an issue.

And that's another reason why this topic interests me - why is it 
such an issue in the C# community? From Mads blog about it, it 
seems to be because they're just not doing null checks. And so 
the language designers are being forced to step in. If that's not 
the reason, then I've misunderstood, and await the correct 
explanation.