[tedunangst]

There are some differences here, but you can't for instance use a string pointer with string functions in go either. IMO The distinction between pointer and optional is not as vast as people make it out to be.

(But thanks, I overlooked T? conversions inside if.)

[ricardobeat]

No you can't, but Go will happily de-reference the pointer without a null check, and your "string" will blow up in production: https://go.dev/play/p/7EVa7q6VgIM

[akavi]

The distinction between pointer and optional is not vast. The distinction between pointer and not optional is.

The whole idea of optional is to make not optional possible.

[morelisp]

You can call a value method on a nil pointer and it panics, though, which I think was a mistake.

[nemothekid]

>The distinction between pointer and optional is not as vast as people make it out to be.

The billion dollar mistake is overblown?