Checking against NULL will be eliminated?

[Jean-Paul Calderone]

On Mar 3, 8:16 am, Neil Cerutti <ne... at norwich.edu> wrote:
> On 2011-03-03, Tom Zych <freethin... at pobox.com> wrote:
>
> > Carl Banks wrote:
> >> Perl works deterministically and reliably.  In fact, pretty much every
> >> language works deterministically and reliably.  Total non-argument.
>
> > Well, yes. I think the real issue is, how many surprises are
> > waiting to pounce on the unwary developer. C is deterministic
> > and reliable, but full of surprises.
>
> Point of order, for expediency, C and C++ both include lots and
> lots of indeterminate stuff. A piece of specific C code can be
> totally deterministic, but the language is full of undefined
> corners.
>
> > Python is generally low in surprises. Using "if <identifier>"
> > is one place where you do have to think about unintended
> > consequences.
>
> Python eschews undefined behavior.
>

C and C++ have standards, and the standards describe what they don't
define.

Python has implementations.  The defined behavior is whatever the
implementation does.  Until someone changes it to do something else.

It's not much of a comparison.

Jean-Paul