Re:In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026
by jodrellblank on Thursday November 12, 2026 @12:56PM
(#50471342)
> "Every primitive type has a null value"
Does it? "bank account has 0 dollars" and "no bank account" are different states. 0 cannot (should not) try to represent both. Same for empty string, empty list, empty set, they are data not nulls. Python has None for that.
Re:In Memoriam: Tim Peters 1952–2026
by pdonis on Thursday November 12, 2026 @02:26PM
(#50472813)
But None has its own type; it's not a value of any of the other primitive types. Which makes sense if you use None to represent "no data present" vs. "data present, value is the null value".
Does it? "bank account has 0 dollars" and "no bank account" are different states. 0 cannot (should not) try to represent both. Same for empty string, empty list, empty set, they are data not nulls. Python has None for that.