[skywhopper]

This isn't a gimmick or a special case. "nil" is an object of type NilClass, which is a subclass of Object: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/NilClass.html

In fact, everything in Ruby is an object. Languages that treat "nil" or "44" as not being instances of a class are the ones making special cases.

[svisser]

The absence of an object is not a special case.

To indicate that with a "nill" object is a special case?