From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id VAA28594; Tue, 23 Dec 2003 21:29:52 +0100 (MET) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA29238 for ; Tue, 23 Dec 2003 21:29:50 +0100 (MET) Received: from bob.west.spy.net (mail.west.spy.net [66.149.231.226]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id hBNKTlv11193 for ; Tue, 23 Dec 2003 21:29:47 +0100 (MET) Received: from [192.168.1.50] (dustinti.west.spy.net [192.168.1.50]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by bob.west.spy.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 693C25B07; Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:23:20 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20031223121657.GB29933@redhat.com> References: <1072152186.59938.30.camel@tylere> <29911.24.6.3.124.1072153159.squirrel@www.cs.fiu.edu> <1072152186.59938.30.camel@tylere> <20031223053451.GB1145@swordfish> <20031223012223.W47896@bowser.eecs.harvard.edu> <20031223121657.GB29933@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v609) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Tyler Eaves , caml-list@inria.fr From: Dustin Sallings Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Frustrated Beginner Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:23:15 -0800 To: Richard Jones X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.609) X-Loop: caml-list@inria.fr X-Spam: no; 0.00; caml-list:01 pointers:01 scalars:01 enforces:01 cae:99 compiler:01 null:01 null:01 her:97 option':96 wrote:03 variable:03 variable:03 perl:03 fingerprint:04 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Dec 23, 2003, at 4:16, Richard Jones wrote: > I like to think of the 'string option' type as being a bit like > two concepts in more familiar languages: > > (1) NULL pointers in C, or > (2) Scalars in Perl, which can be 'undef'. I think of it more like SQL. Any given variable may be defined to be nullable or not, but a variable that is not nullable an never be null. The main difference is that the compiler enforces that you check for null on nullable fields. -- SPY My girlfriend asked me which one I like better. pub 1024/3CAE01D5 1994/11/03 Dustin Sallings | Key fingerprint = 87 02 57 08 02 D0 DA D6 C8 0F 3E 65 51 98 D8 BE L_______________________ I hope the answer won't upset her. ____________ ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners