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Re: [ProgSoc] Programming! Code!



On Friday 20 October 2006 03:51, Roland Turner wrote:
> > > The other place that it's frequently useful in Java is to
> > > explicitly represent intentional absence of a value, e.g. for a
> > > "don't know" or "not specified" situation; a Boolean object
> > > reference can, by virtue of being an object reference, be a null
> > > object reference (a explicit reference to no object) and,
> > > therefore, explicitly represent the absence of a value. "boolean"
> > > on the other hand is a primitive value type (not a reference)
> > > and, therefore, cannot be "null" in either sense.
> >
> > You statements regarding what can and can not be done here are
> > incorrect.
>
> Erm, you wanna rethink that? I've worked with this language
> extensively since a few weeks after its alpha release back in 1995. I
> am convinced that what I have written is correct, even in the
> presence of j2se5's autoboxing.

Sorry... I'm really rushed and tired. I missed the "in Java" part of 
your comment.

What you said is obviously correct.

What I 'heard' was the statement "Boolean values are value types and 
value types can not represent either definition of null". A statement 
such as that would not be true. Of course... that's not what you 
said. :)



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