Re: proposal to make null string handling more emacs-y

[Miles Bader]

Steve Yegge <address@hidden> writes:
> There's a lot of code out there that's forced to do type assertions on
> string args that could be simplified if these common functions could
> accept nils.

Maybe.  But I think such changes must be justified on a case-by-case
basis, with convincing use-cases ("in this very common situation, a nil
naturally turns up where a string was expected").

Type-checking catches a lot of bugs, even in "loose" languages like lisp
and end-user-targeted languages like elisp -- and I think the trend is
generally towards _stricter_ checking and less fuzziness, even in
scripting languages.

-miles

-- 
Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.