Get the latest tech news
Falsehoods programmers believe about null pointers
Null pointers look simple on the surface, and that’s why they’re so dangerous. As compiler optimizations, intuitive but incorrect simplifications, and platform-specific quirks have piled on, the odds of making a wrong assumption have increased, leading to the proliferation of bugs and vulnerabilities. This article explores common misconceptions about null pointers held by many programmers, starting with simple fallacies and working our way up to the weirdest cases. Some of them will be news only to beginners, while others may lead experts down the path of meticulous fact-checking. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
As compiler optimizations, intuitive but incorrect simplifications, and platform-specific quirks have piled on, the odds of making a wrong assumption have increased, leading to the proliferation of bugs and vulnerabilities. This article explores common misconceptions about null pointers held by many programmers, starting with simple fallacies and working our way up to the weirdest cases. Python does not suffer from horrible memory safety bugs and non-portable behavior not only because it’s an interpreted language, but also because software engineers don’t try to outsmart the compiler or the runtime.
Or read this on Hacker News