Re: [Python-Dev] Parrot -- should life imitate satire?

[Sterling Hughes]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2001, Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:

> > Here's the straw man for an integration api for dynamic languages.
> >
> > typedef enum value_type{
> >     dia_INTEGER,
> >     dia_FLOAT,
> >     dia_ASCII,
> >     dia_UNISTRING,
> >     dia_BYTESTRING,
> >     dia_ARRAY,
> >     dia_HASH,
> >     dia_OBJECT
> > } value_type;
>
> Boolean and Null?  Null is sort of an oddball, but when dealing with
> databases a NULL field is quite distinct from an empty string, a 0 or
> however else you might otherwise choose to represent it.
>

    I'm just wondering if perhaps an dia_UNDEF constant should also be
    added for cases such as:

    print $foo;

    where foo is not defined... Otherwise the natural assumption is that
    undefined values would default to null, which removes its
    usefullness in regards to databases...

    -Sterling

> -Rasmus>
>