Again, optional is different from pointer because it offers value semantics.

monocasa · on Oct 29, 2020

I know they're different (and the construct unfortunately named optional has some occasional uses); it's just that the semantics of optional don't help it be used as a classic optional type.

jcelerier · on Oct 29, 2020

> it's just that the semantics of optional don't help it be used as a classic optional type.

what do you mean "classic optional type"? boost.optional has worked like that for something like 20 years - it's been in C++ for longer than Maybe has been in Haskell.

tome · on Oct 29, 2020

> it's been in C++ for longer than Maybe has been in Haskell.

Tangentially, how did you conclude that? Haskell has around since 1990 but boost only since 1999, as far as I can tell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_(programming_language)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost_(C%2B%2B_libraries)

monocasa · on Oct 29, 2020

It's been in Standard ML since the 80s.