On Tuesday, 31 March 2015 at 07:48:08 UTC, w0rp wrote:
I argue that instead of catching NullPointerExceptions, you
should make them never happen. This is where Option types come
in. Rather than using T*, use an Option!T and force yourself to
always check for null gracefully. Also use Some!T (a.k.a
NotNull) and get classes and pointers which are verified via
contracts that they are not null.
I have already implemented such a thing here.
https://w0rp.com/project/dstruct/dstruct/option/
If you don't like it, you can always implement a similar thing
yourself.
Now at this point you might wish for this to gain some benefits
from being a language feature. I think I will agree, but who
knows if that will ever happen.
Maybe this a good direction.
A pointer or reference is replaced by a struct (a pointer
holder?), and the struct will check if the pointer is null.
It is a good idea, I could check the pointer myself now, and
stopping worring about server crashing, that's enough.
Excellent job, Thank you!
