The Official Programming Dictionary

[Acid_Snake]

In the end, it really matters?

this doesn't matter to me, as you said:

Then the compiler sees that there is an zero assigment (in C) or a __null one (int C++) to a pointer type and replaces that zero for the platform dependant null value (zero in 99% of the use cases).

this is what matters:

in fact NULL means "unknown" or "not described"

this is perhaps the most idiotic thing ever said by a guy posing as a developer. How can NULL be not described when the C stdlib describes it as 0? or any other number for that matter, I don't care, NULL is described, period.

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[pspfanMOHH]

Please don't take this any further to the point where its locked, I am still gathering definitions as I advance in programming. Thank You for your patience.

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[svenn]

In the end, it really matters?

this doesn't matter to me, as you said:

Then the compiler sees that there is an zero assigment (in C) or a __null one (int C++) to a pointer type and replaces that zero for the platform dependant null value (zero in 99% of the use cases).

this is what matters:

in fact NULL means "unknown" or "not described"

this is perhaps the most idiotic thing ever said by a guy posing as a developer. How can NULL be not described when the C stdlib describes it as 0? or any other number for that matter, I don't care, NULL is described, period.

Calling me an idiot did in fact provoke me to write a reply;

I even googled a bit on the difference between NULL and zero; And quit allot people agree with me; Even in linguistics there is a difference : http://english.stackexchange.com/questi ... l-and-zero

Though its not cause you use constants, that this makes it valid;

Code: Select all

#ifdef GCC
    #define NULL 1
    #endif

Would this mean NULL = 1 ? Yes, in your compiler it would. NULL == undefined, unknown; 0 == the integer that represents nothing.

While you might not be open to other opinions, there are, and they are quit valid;

[Acid_Snake]

Calling me an idiot did in fact provoke me to write a reply;

I didn't call you an idiot, I said your statement is idiotic, two different things

Even in linguistics there is a difference

don't bring up linguistics, as you're just gonna fail, here's what the oxford dictionary has to say about null, pay close attention to its second meaning:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... ull?q=null
Here's the official spanish dictionary, pay close attention to the 5th meaning:
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=nullo
Just to clear it up a bit, the word null comes from the latin word nullus. In latin the number 0 didn't exist as they considered that you cannot count something that didn't exist (which is physically true), but in modern maths and physics there is a need to express the absence of something with numbers, so we use 0. Still has the same meaning: 0 = null = nothing. Null and 0 have two different etymologies (one being arabic, one being roman) but they express the same thing: absence of something, nothing, etc, which is completely different from undefined. Something that is undefined doesn't mean, at all, that it doesn't exist, since it's undefined you CAN'T really say if it exist or if it doesn't.

[svenn]

Calling me an idiot did in fact provoke me to write a reply;

I didn't call you an idiot, I said your statement is idiotic, two different things

My apologies, I judged to fast Good thing you din't wrote that, cause you know what they say about arguing with idiots;

don't bring up linguistics, as you're just gonna fail, here's what the oxford dictionary has to say about null, pay close attention to its second meaning:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definitio ... ull?q=null
Here's the official spanish dictionary, pay close attention to the 5th meaning:
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=nullo
Just to clear it up a bit, the word null comes from the latin word nullus. In latin the number 0 didn't exist as they considered that you cannot count something that didn't exist (which is physically true), but in modern maths and physics there is a need to express the absence of something with numbers, so we use 0. Still has the same meaning: 0 = null = nothing. Null and 0 have two different etymologies (one being arabic, one being roman) but they express the same thing: absence of something, nothing, etc, which is completely different from undefined. Something that is undefined doesn't mean, at all, that it doesn't exist, since it's undefined you CAN'T really say if it exist or if it doesn't.

I'm sure I don't wane argue linguistics with you, I just pointed out someone shared with me a different opinion about null and zero;

Ill drop the argument, for sake of the topic starter; Since in fact this issue is all over the web and the result isn't all that important in programming languages, since most languages interpret NULL as 0 or similar representation of 0 (zero);

Though it would be nice if TS would adapt other terms, such as "bug".

[Acid_Snake]

I'm not gonna argue with ou about the actual value of null that the language uses (most high level languages don't even use a value, but rather an object named null, or in the case of python, none), but don't say that null is undefined, cause it is perfectly defined as being nothing at all, rather than being anything (undefined).

[NNNRT]

I'm not gonna argue with ou about the actual value of null that the language uses (most high level languages don't even use a value, but rather an object named null, or in the case of python, none), but don't say that null is undefined, cause it is perfectly defined as being nothing at all, rather than being anything (undefined).

That's everything that should have been said from the beginning. Nice job Acid.

[Acid_Snake]

from this point onward, no more offtopic posts

[codestation]

from this point onward, no more offtopic posts

Aww, but we didn't even got to /dev/null....

@OP, what about adding some entries to unicode, i18n and l10n? These three are related and very important when developing some types of applications.

[hgoel0974]

from this point onward, no more offtopic posts

Aww, but we didn't even got to /dev/null....

@OP, what about adding some entries to unicode, i18n and l10n? These three are related and very important when developing some types of applications.

like Zip archivers