Re: RFC 263 (v1) Add null() keyword and fundamental data type

[Russ Allbery]

Glenn Linderman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Tom Christiansen wrote:

>>> Currently, Perl has the concept of C<undef>, which means that a value
>>> is not defined. One thing it lacks, however, is the concept of
>>> C<null>, which means that a value is known to be unknown or not
>>> applicable. These are two separate concepts.

>> No, they aren't.

> Yes, they are.*

> * [What other appropriate response is there to someone states a position
> without justification?  All six-year olds understand this response, and
> by age seven have realized its futility.]

I agree with Tom; I think it's pretty self-evident that they're the same
thing.  undef means exactly the same thing as null; that's not the
problem.  The problem is that Perl doesn't implement the tri-state logic
semantics that most users of null are used to, which is a different issue.

-- 
Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED])             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>