Non-nullable reference types in C# & .NET

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Note: This article/proposal is an aggregation of several previous blog posts written over the past few years. The content is mostly the same, but has been edited for consistency and clarity.

Abstract

In the C# programming language, there are two kinds of data types: value types and reference types. Reference types can hold either pointers to objects, or the special value null, which is used to indicate a ‘missing’ reference. This feature of implicitly allowing nulls in reference types has some well-recognised problems and the .NET team are already exploring ways of enforcing non-nullable reference types; this paper explores one possible design. Continue reading →

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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