NPEs in JavaFX

Question

JavaFX allows dereferencing into nulls, where with Java you would get a NullPointerException. To my way of thinking highlighting NPEs improves code - as it points the way to specific programmer oversights. So my question is - is it possible to have NullPointerExceptions even when coding in JavaFX?
example:
someVar.getName() [if someVar was null then in Java you would get a NPE]

Answer 1

Not having NPEs makes me a less productive programmer :-( This is the one aspect of the JavaFX language that could, I think, be improved. My bugs very often appear not where they really happen, but sometime after. I find myself frequently having to code Assert.notNull( ref) a few times (ie. Assert.notNull( ref.ref) etc. as well) to trace back to where the actual problem is.
Perhaps a modification to the language would help? How about a keyword, say 'npe' or 'dud' (or even 'null' as it is supeflous at the moment right?) When you initialise a var with our new keyword then ref access is not generated like this:
(ref != null) ref.funcall()
, but like this:
ref.funcall()
Then the IDE could have a warning to keep people like me happy. The warning wouldn't happen as long as I coded like this:
var someRef = npe;
(The warning wouldn't happen for sequences which always get generated on the fly, which seems to be a good thing.)
- Chris Murphy