bearophile Wrote:

> Regan Heath:
> 
> > conceptually it's nice to be able to express (exists but is empty) and (does not exist).
> 
> You may want to express that, but for the implementation of the language those two situations are the same, because in the [] literal the ptr is null. So I think it's better for the programmer to not differentiate the two situations, because they are not different. If the programmer tells them apart, he/she is doing something bad in D, creating a false illusion.

It's bad, when the language is driven by the implementation of a "reference" compiler by the copyright holder. This way compiler bugs and tricks become a language standard. See the story of VP7 codec.