Re: [xdi] Re: Proposal about null vs. undefined values

On Aug 18, 2013, at 8:53 AM, Markus Sabadello <markus.sabadello@xdi.org> wrote:

I am against introducing such a semantic distinction for the reasons I already mentioned.
When storing data, either it is there or it is not there.
I don't know of any data model that distinguishes between the three states null, not null, and undefined.

In general I find the approach of comparing XDI to programming languages (Java, _javascript_, Perl, ...) quite useless.

I also find the following sentence from the XDI TC minutes inapplicable since it only talks about one specific JSON implementation rather than the general concepts:
"Java’s null is not equivalent to JSON null but to JSON undefined"
http://json-lib.sourceforge.net/apidocs/jdk15/net/sf/json/JSONNull.html

The point of that note was just to further warn against equating JSON null with any particular semantics, even with no-value-assigned in XDI, because "null" can have completely different meanings in various contexts. It is arguing for independence from ciients' various programming languages, not for dependence on them.

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