language_fan wrote:
Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:30:24 -0400, Jarrett Billingsley thusly wrote:
I always think it's funny when people are like "so, I had this idea,
lemme throw this out there. I know it sounds weird, but just bear with
me - what if there were _no null_? Did I just _blow your mind?_"
And the perspective of languages with **better type systems**, it's
like..
*plonk* :-P (old-timers might know)
The whole null/nonnull debate is a complete nonissue in languages like
Haskell because _they actually treat it formally and correctly_. And
they've _been_ doing this for years. For all the Java-ites to be like
"OMG PARADIGM SHIFT" it's just funny.
You know, mainstream is pretty much religion driven.. many might have
already plonked you automatically because your postings have contained
the words 'disagree', 'progress', 'haskell', or 'scala'. The performance
focused people from the c++ land seem to have a strong conservative view
towards new things - like it or not. Walter being mostly a C++ guy and
not having written much code in any other language (including D!) only
makes the situation a bit worse, if you prefer progress.
I'll note two things. For one, Walter is a heck more progressive than
his pedigree might lead one to think. He has taken quite some risks with
a number of features that made definite steps outside the mainstream,
and I feel he bet on the right horse more often than not. Second, this
particular discussion is not about efficiency.
Andrei
