The same thing applies to interfaces... you don't NEED them, but without
them you lose that runtime type-checking safety net. The fact that CF's
product manager used the term "the whole OO debate" in regards to CFC
usage doesn't give me the feeling we'll be seeing the features we want
anytime soon. It shouldn't be a debate, we aren't demanding that every
CFC developer program in a OO fashion. We are just asking for small
enhancements that would make our lives easier and our applications more
robust. I think this is one area that Blue Dragon could leapfrog CFMX,
and I would seriously think about switching if they did implement
interfaces and null in a proper fashion.

-Dave

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5/12/2005 4:03:20 PM >>>
How about a function that needs to return an object that may or may
not exist.  You HAVE to declare the method as returntype="any" and
return some random thing (like the empty string) if the object is
missing.  If you could just return null, then you could leave your
returntype set to the proper object type, since 'null' fulfills the
role of any type.

Since CF is loosely typed, there's no real need for a null, since a
given value never has any type at all.  However, since MM did allow
specifying types in CFARGUMENT and the returntype attribute, you've
got a bit of a problem.  If you never specify types (proceeding with a
truly loosely typed language), you don't need null, but if you want to
use types to aid in runtime error checking, you're severely limited by
not having null.

cheers,
barneyb

On 5/12/05, Steve Bryant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Why is it that you can't protect against runtime errors without a
null value?
> 
> Steve
> 
> At 01:48 PM 5/12/2005, you wrote:
> >Agreed, Brian. Also, one thing that absolutely should make it into
CFCs: a
> >null value. Without this, you can't protect against runtime errors.
> 

-- 
Barney Boisvert
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
360.319.6145
http://www.barneyb.com/ 

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