[Oberon] Should one automatically initalize local pointer or procedure variables (safety precaution)?

[Skulski, Wojciech]

Andreas:

>  PROCEDURE P;
>    VAR ptr1, ptr2, ptr3: Ptr;
>  BEGIN ptr1 := NIL; ptr2 := NIL; ptr3 := NIL; proc1 := NIL; proc2 := NIL   (* <--- generated by the compiler*)
>     somecode
>  END P;

>Such a scheme could easily be accomplished via the code below. However, if the programmer -
>adopting good programming style - himself initializes a local pointer or procedure variable before
>it is used, it will be initialized twice. Which is an argument against adapting the compiler in this way.

If pre-assigning NIL to pointers becomes an official part of the language then programmers will stop initializing on their own.

>PS: If you are familiar with the (internals of the) Swift compiler, you’ll know what I am getting at..

I have not heard of Swift. I checked the Wikipedia. There I found:

"Swift was introduced at Apple's 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)."
"Swift won first place for Most Loved Programming Language in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2015..."

Swiftly.

Wojtek