August 2004 Archives

So, on this side of the pond, HM Government have recently been sending us all a little booklet to reassure and deassure us by telling us what to do in the event of emergencies, the contents of which are reproduced on their official "Preparing for Emergencies" web site. I've just received mine - and let me tell you, I haven't felt so reassured since discovering that the local Post Office was maintaining a continuous Black Special¹ security alert - hence this post.

Except I much prefer this version:

Preparing for Emergencies: What You Need To Know

1. For those not familiar with UK security jargon, Black Special Alert actually means "no alert at all; don't worry, be happy".

"To die is good; not to be born is best."
    - Sophocles

OK, these I really like.

Right now, for one particular idiom, namely the:

private bool? _someProperty = null ;

public bool SomeProperty
{
  get
  {
    if (_someProperty == null)
    {
      // do whatever you do to get the value that's the reason you
      // didn't initialise it in the first place, because it's expensive
      // and/or requires a security walk
    }

    return _someProperty;
  }
}

No more second bool _somePropertyInitialised = false ; any more!

This pleases me entirely disproportionately to its size.