[RFC] Throwing an exception with null pointers

[GrimMaple]

On Monday, 21 April 2025 at 10:45:15 UTC, Richard (Rikki) Andrew 
Cattermole wrote:
>
> That is the Swift solution to the problem, more or less.

My take here is that null pointers (references/whatever) just 
_shouldn't be_, __period__. The compiler should disallow me to 
generate a null pointer, unless specifically asked for - like 
with `Nullable!MyType`. or, even better, `Optional!MyType` -- 
then we can finally ditch that "null pointer semantic" and use 
"correct" terminology, because most often a null pointer is just 
used as a quasi-optional type. Any memory allocations that end up 
in a null pointer, eg `new` running out of memory, should result 
in an Exception/Error, not returning null.

I think that having `NotNull!T` provides a soft transition from 
having null to not having null at all -- it's fairly trivial to 
append `MaybeNull!` to any var type that needs it; and then it's 
fairly easy to just rename it to `Optional` c: