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    I suggest reading up about Tony Hoare, in particular his billion dollar mistake. Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 14:38
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    Well, that was his reason. And the unfortunate result is that it was a mistake copied to most languages that followed, up to today. There are languages where null or its concept do not exist (IIRC Haskell is one such example). Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 14:53
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    Historical baggage is not something to underestimate. And remember that the OSes that these build on were written in languages that have had nulls in them for a long time. It isn't easy to just drop that. Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 15:01
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    I think you should shed some light on the concept of Maybe instead of posting a link. Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 15:21
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    @GlenH7 Strings in C# are reference values (they can be null). I know that int is a primitive value, but it was useful to show the use of maybe. Commented Dec 15, 2013 at 15:55