New Issue: What should 'c_nil' be named? Should it even exist?

18014, "bradcray", "What should 'c_nil' be named? Should it even exist?", "2021-07-01T02:13:16Z"

It's been pointed out that c_nil is a weird identifier: the c_ prefix indicates that it's referring to a C symbol named nil, but it's not. The rationale for this was "It's C's equivalent to Chapel's nil", but that doesn't really hold up.

For that reason, it's been proposed that we either:

  • change it to c_NULL: this would be more consistent with our other c_ prefixes (vote :+1:)
  • retire it in favor of just using nil for this purpose (related to issue #13520) (vote :heart:)
  • something else...?