[article] Language Design Deal Breakers

[Walter Bright]

On 5/25/2013 5:14 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> I completely disagree that null pointers are a problem. I don't even remember
> the last time that I dereferenced a null pointer in my code, and I think that
> null can be extremely useful. And yet for whatever reason, there are quite a
> few people who seem to think that it's a great cause for bugs. Clearly,
> they're doing something differently than I do.

It was Hoare's engaging presentation on it that turned it into a cause celebre.

Null pointers aren't even remotely the source of most programming bugs. If they 
were, then languages that disallow them would be super-productive in comparison. 
But they aren't. They're just an incremental step, and elevating it into a "deal 
breaker" is frankly ridiculous.

His point about memory safety, though, makes a lot more sense.