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Null references are one of the biggest causes of issues for software everywhere. If it was so easy as just don't do nulls, everyone would be doing it by now. If
by potamic 1y ago
Null references are one of the biggest causes of issues for software everywhere. If it was so easy as just don't do nulls, everyone would be doing it by now. If your application sees some unexpected data, null or otherwise, if it is not handled, it can crash. The real cause is unhandled code paths in the application and that is not always trivial to solve.
Formal verification is a relatively unexplored idea in the industry, but it's something that seems to be used to verify protocols or algorithms rather than implementation code. If anyone is using formal verification in their systems, I would love to hear some experiences.
- b-man 1y agoIs it more expensive? The answer depends on the criticality of the component. In this case in particular, having a 'not null' directive on the table at hand would have suffice. And that is something everyone can do.
- b-man 1y agobtw, I do reference an article that is rich in experiences of formal verification: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3624728 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3624728
- schonfinkel 1y ago> If it was so easy as just don't do nulls, everyone would be doing it by now You are assuming tech is business governed by rational decision makers. And yes, it is that easy.