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>NULL is a terrible design flaw, one that continues to cause constant, immeasurable pain Exaggeration much? Certainly not "the worst mistake of computer scien
by xamuel 11y ago
>NULL is a terrible design flaw, one that continues to cause constant, immeasurable pain
Exaggeration much? Certainly not "the worst mistake of computer science". IPv4 is much worse, just for one example. NULL isn't even visible to end-users, many mistakes in CS are quite visible and really impact non-programmers' lives. NULL is just the color of the wallpaper in the engine room.
- _Ogre 11y agoIt is vastly more destructive than IP v4. This affects end users directly, every single day. The number of times applications have crashed due to NULL related errors is probably in the tens or maybe hundreds of billions. Each time is an interruption of people's work and in some cases it destroys hours of work.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> NULL isn't even visible to end-users In the same way HIV isn't visible; sure, the cause isn't visible to most people, but the adverse effects are.
- 15155 11y ago> IPv4 is much worse How is it worse, technically, beyond a constrained keyspace? IPv4 is an unfortunate, entrenched reality. NULL doesn't need to be, and isn't, in some ecosystems.