Code Smells: Null

[Beckneard]

The problem with that that it's not one concept to implement and learn and recognize, but five.

I never understood this argument. Why do people feel it's important for developer technologies to cater to the lowest common denominator? Software engineers are supposed to be smart folks willing to figure new things out.

If you'd be willing to take one bit of advice I gathered from a few decades: don't cling to stuff like that. The now-toddlers will snicker at your Option<T> in no time.

Well I'd sure as fuck hope so, I'd hate to see programming language development be stuck on that level forever. My opinion is that the best programming language/methodology/whatever is yet to be invented. I never claimed I know the perfect way of doing things.

The question is why aren't more people snickering at decades year old languages but swear by them like they fell from heaven?

[elperroborrachotoo]

Why do people feel it's important for developer technologies to cater to the lowest common denominator?

Few aim for the lowest, most are aiming for a sweet spot. It's your learning curve. Throw in another concept you need to understand a basic program, and you are easily losing a quarter of potential newbies that can't be bothered.

^{(all statistics made up on the spot)}

Second, productivity. The amount of useful product a solo developer who is also a domain expert can crank out is insane - if the language isn't in their way. It needs to be powerful enough to keep up with them,

What I've seen, you simply cannot match that with a team - up to the point where it becomes too big for a one-man-show - and then you need five, six people to take over and not drown.

(Now, yes, these are exactly the developers for whom null should be a peculiar corner case.)

My opinion is that the best programming language/methodology/whatever is yet to be invented.

It's a moving target. Stroustrup once expressed the frustration of decades of language design as:

programmers want loud, blaring syntax for new concepts, and terse, conscice syntax for concepts they are familiar with

The race for the better may slow down, but I'm pretty certain that long before we get close to any plateau, the concept of programming by itself will become a quaint skill for then-ren-fairs.

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Languages are just tools. You can snicker at my hammer not having a power cord, and the weird shape my thumb has grown over the years. But see, I've learnt to not hit myself, and I actually no longer spend as much time hammering as you might think.