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Author:halw

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Date:2009-08-04T22:37:13.000000Z


git-svn-id: https://svn.eiffel.com/eiffel-org/trunk@277 abb3cda0-5349-4a8f-a601-0c33ac3a8c38
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halw
2009-08-04 22:37:13 +00:00
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documentation/current/papers/void-safety-how-eiffel-removes-null-pointer-dereferencing.wiki
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@@ -6,14 +6,14 @@ This white paper (see "Attachment" link below) presents the Eiffel void safety m
In almost every program running today there is a ticking time bomb: the risk of a "void call". A void call is possible in programs written in almost any programming language; its effect is usually to crash the program. Many unexplained program failures and other abnormal behaviors result from void calls.
While extensive testing can decrease the likelihood of a void call, it cannot remove the possibility. The solution has to com from the programming language.
While extensive testing can decrease the likelihood of a void call, it cannot remove the possibility. The solution has to come from the programming language.
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Professor C.A.R. Hoare from Microsoft Research, winner of the Turing Award and the Kyoto Prize, calls the presence of void calls in modern programming languages the "billion-dollar mistake":
<ul>"The invention of the null reference in 1965" [the source of void calls] "has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years."
</ul>
(Citation at: http://qconlondon.com/london-2009/presentation/Null+References:+The+Billion+Dollar+Mistake</a>.)
(Citation at: http://qconlondon.com/london-2009/presentation/Null+References:+The+Billion+Dollar+Mistake .)
The Eiffel solution relies on a combination of language mechanisms: