Author Archives: Andrew

Nullable reference types in C#: backwards compatability

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C# Non-Nullable Types: Backwards Compatibility

In previous episodes I proposed a set of requirements for non-nullable reference types in C#/.NET, and a proposed design, including their interaction with generic types (polymorphic types).

There is also something to be said about backwards- and forwards- compatibility:

  1. How can legacy code — using implicitly-nullable reference types — be migrated to using non-nullable references without causing disruption?
  2. How should legacy code interact with APIs which accept or return non-nullable reference types?
  3. What are the implications of generic code to backwards compatibility?

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Ionic mobile development, growing pains

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I’ve been developing a mobile app with Ionic 2/Angular 2/Cordova/TypeScript, and given how many moving parts there are in there, and that Ionic 2 and Angular 2 were still beta software when I started—and that I was completely new to all of the technologies when I started—it’s gone relatively well.

However, it’s not a totally smooth development experience, and there are lots of little annoyances which occasionally turn it from pleasant to hideously frustrating.

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Nullable reference types in C#, generics

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I’ve described some design requirements for implementing non-nullable and explicitly-nullable reference types in C#, and a design which meets those requirements.

However, there are two major items I’ve not yet discussed: how these null-aware types interact with .NET generic types, and how they interact with legacy code containing implicitly-null reference types.

In this episode, Generics:

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