C and C++ could have non_nullable pointers, easily [LWN.net]

C and C++ could have non_nullable pointers, easily

Posted Oct 19, 2009 3:47 UTC (Mon) by foom (subscriber, #14868)
In reply to: C and C++ could have non_nullable pointers, easily by cmccabe
Parent article: Null pointers, one month later

> a null reference cannot exist in a well-defined program

I stand corrected.

I had always considered the "dereference" that occurs during the initialization of a reference
variable as syntax, rather than an actual memory operation, and thus the value of the pointer is
irrelevant at that point. Clearly the standard says otherwise.

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