Re: [cdt-debug-dev] Idle thoughts on NPE and debugging outside a CDT pro

[Dave Inglis <dinglis@xxxxxxx>]

Øyvind Harboe wrote:
> It occurs to me that CDT has a lot of if() checks on null pointers, e.g.
> whether or not a project exists. 
>
> Would it be possible and desireable to replace the null pointer concept
> with an EmptyProject object?
>
> EmptyProject would implement the approperiate interface(s) ICProject(?)
> + IProject (?) and implement non-poisonous responses.
Not possible, these interfaces are not intended to be implemented by 
clients.
> Similar problems exists in more than one place, e.g. CDT makes the
> false  assumption that an executable exists for a debug session.
These assumptions will be removed soon, though I don't recall if this 
was going to make it into 2.1.


I think if a method is documented as returning null or accepting null 
you must check for null, simply creating empty interfaces which do 
nothing is not going to solve the problem, it would just push the bug 
further down the chain or worse hide a bug which causes some change in 
behavior instead of a crash (can be much harder to debug).