Mastodawn

Goodbye Sir Tony Hoare FRS FREng https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/news/2516-full.html #ComputerScience #Obituary #QuickSort #NullPointer

Sir Tony Hoare FRS FREng

The department is saddened to announce the death of Emeritus Professor Sir Tony Hoare.

Department of Computer Science

N-gated Hacker News Jan 4

Oh, joy! 🎉 Another ode to the almighty null pointer, where we learn that catching them is as easy as catching a cold in winter 🌨️. But wait, the "Billion Dollar Mistake" is just a misunderstood little rascal 🙄, because, really, who needs memory safety when you have "individualelement mindsets" to blame? 😂👨‍💻
https://www.gingerbill.org/article/2026/01/02/was-it-really-a-billion-dollar-mistake/ #nullpointer #billiondollarmistake #memorysafety #programminghumor #technews #HackerNews #ngated

Was it really a Billion Dollar Mistake? - gingerBill

Hacker News Jun 26, 2025

Some bits on malloc(0) in C being allowed to return NULL

https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/programming/CZeroSizeMallocSomeNotes

#HackerNews #malloc0 #CProgramming #MemoryManagement #NULLPointer #HackerNews

Chris's Wiki :: blog/programming/CZeroSizeMallocSomeNotes

seanpm2001 🇺🇦️🇬🇱Apr 17, 2025

I don't understand something: if the null pointer was a billion dollar mistake, and has caused pain and system crashes for decades, then why weren't there any attempts to just not implement it in an object-oriented system?
#programming #oop #nullsafety #nullpointer #null #billiondollarmistake #algol #java #c #question

Show thread

Darren Apr 1, 2025

the #jetblue app page with my options for my rescheduled 6am flight (experienced this at 4:30 am and didn’t bring me joy from a UX experience ?). wish people would test these things with a little more imagination. I assume another industry standard #nullpointer.

Harald Feb 15, 2025

Just saw that the Java/JDK developers are finally tackling the billion dollar mistake.

String! good = "this is never null";

It is listed for Java-25, hope this gets done.

#java #jdk #billiondollarmistake #null #nullpointer #npe

https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8303099

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_pointer#History

Aurimas Černius Jul 22, 2024

I have one annoying problem with people bashing C/C++ with regard to NULL pointer.
NULL pointer is *C* problem.
C++ has references since forever. Here the problem is programmers not using them. If a *C++* function takes a pointer as a parameter and does not allow it to be nullptr, it's a bug - it should take a reference instead.
std::optional is still newish, so give some slack to pointers still.

#programming #Cpp #null #NullPointer

Marcel SIneM(S)US Jul 21, 2024

#CrowdStrike-Fiasko: Der #NullPointer ist Schuld | c't Magazin https://www.heise.de/hintergrund/Fataler-Fehler-bei-CrowdStrike-Schuld-war-ein-Null-Pointer-9807896.html #Development

CrowdStrike-Fiasko: Der Null Pointer ist Schuld

Nach dem IT-Ausfall durch ein CrowdStrike-Update gibt es erste Analysen des Speicherfehlers, die auf einen grundlegenden Fehler von CrowdStrike hindeuten.

c't Magazin

Scripter

Jul 21, 2024

Fataler Fehler bei CrowdStrike: Schuld war ein Null Pointer | heise online
https://heise.de/-9807896 #CrowdStrike #Bluescreen #Programmierung #CPlusPlus #NullPointer

CrowdStrike-Fiasko: Der Null Pointer ist Schuld

Nach dem IT-Ausfall durch ein CrowdStrike-Update gibt es erste Analysen des Speicherfehlers, die auf einen grundlegenden Fehler von CrowdStrike hindeuten.

c't Magazin