use only `null` as the value and the type for "nothing" by amtoine · Pull Request #9918 · nushell/nushell

amtoine · 2023-08-04T12:46:49Z

⚠️ breaking change ⚠️

Description

in the Discord server, there has been a discussion about null and $nothing
being confusing.
i thought i would give this a try 😏

Note
the changes in this PR are quite big and touch almost the whole source base 😱
but bare with me, most of it has been writen though automatic replacement either with

IDE renaming

find/replace calls to sd

Note
i invite reviewers to check the commit messages

the first commits mentioning "renaming" enums have been made with my IDE

the commits mentioning "commands used" are automatic

the rest is manual

This PR

renames the nothing type into null
removes the $nothing variable, leaving only null as before

👍👍 pros:

makes the language simpler without null and $nothing doing the same thing
unifies null as the type and null as the value

👎👎 cons:

pretty big breaking change
need to use "null" as the key in $env.config.color_config because

> {null: "foo"}
Error: nu::shell::cant_convert

  × Can't convert to string.
   ╭─[entry #1:1:1]
 1 │ {null: "foo"}
   ·  ──┬─
   ·    ╰── can't convert nothing to string
   ╰────

conclusion

i think removing $nothing is the important thing in this PR.
i think it makes the language simpler by removing this redundant variable as we
already have null 😋

the renaming of nothing type into null can be discussed and, i think, reverted
if we decide to keep (1) null as the value and (2) nothing as the type 😉

User-Facing Changes

the nothing type becomes null
the $nothing variable is removed and null as a value should be used

Tests + Formatting

🟢 toolkit fmt
🟢 toolkit clippy
🟢 toolkit test
🟢 toolkit test stdlib

After Submitting

mention in the release notes!!

commands used ```nushell sd "nothing" "null" **/*.rs sd "nothing" "null" **/*.nu ``` replacements manually left because it's just english sentences using the word "nothing": - src/terminal.rs: // Common case, nothing to do - crates/nu-engine/src/env.rs: None => { /* not preset, do nothing */ } - crates/nu-glob/LICENSE-APACHE: Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify - crates/nu-glob/src/lib.rs: /// match the input string and nothing else. - crates/nu-glob/src/lib.rs: // not a directory, nothing more to find - crates/nu-system/src/foreground.rs:/// It does nothing special on windows system, `spawn` is the same as [std::process::Command::spawn](std::process::Command::spawn) - crates/nu-table/src/types/expanded.rs: // We consider showing something better then nothing, - crates/nu-protocol/src/engine/stack.rs: // nothing has been hidden in this overlay - crates/nu-protocol/src/engine/stack.rs: // nothing has been hidden in this overlay

command used ```nushell sd "Value::Nothing" "Value::Null" **/*.rs ```

command used ```nushell sd "Type::Nothing" "Type::Null" **/*.rs ```

the rest are ony comments and the LICENSE.

commands used ```nushell sd --string-mode "$nothing" "null" **/*.rs sd --string-mode "$nothing" "null" **/*.nu sd --string-mode "$null" "null" **/*.rs sd --string-mode "$null" "null" **/*.nu ``` format

amtoine · 2023-08-04T12:47:20Z

and it was fun to play a bit with the language 😉

amtoine · 2023-08-10T11:23:23Z

closing in favor of #9973 which only renames the type

@jntrnr

related to - #9973 - #9918 thanks to @jntrnr and their super useful tips on this PR, i learned about the parser + evaluation, so 🙏 # Description because we already have `null` as the value of the type `nothing` and as a followup to the two other attempts of mine, i propose to remove the redundant `$nothing` built-in variable 😋 this PR is the first step, deprecating `$nothing`. a followup PR will remove it altogether and wait for 0.87 👍 ⚙️ **details**: a new `NOTHING_VARIABLE_ID = 3` has been added, parsing `$nothing` will create it, finally a `Value::Nothing` will be produced and a warning will be reported. this PR already fixes the `toolkit.nu` module so that it does not throw a bunch of warnings each time 👌 # User-Facing Changes `$nothing` is now deprecated and will be removed in 0.87 ```nushell > $nothing Error: × Deprecated variable ╭─[entry #1:1:1] 1 │ $nothing · ────┬─── · ╰── `$nothing` is deprecated and will be removed in 0.87. ╰──── help: Use `null` instead ``` # Tests + Formatting tests have been updated, especially - `nothing_fails_string` - `nothing_fails_int` which use a variable called `nil` now to make sure `nothing` does not support cell paths 👍 # After Submitting classic deprecation mention 👍

@jntrnr

related to - nushell#9973 - nushell#9918 thanks to @jntrnr and their super useful tips on this PR, i learned about the parser + evaluation, so 🙏 # Description because we already have `null` as the value of the type `nothing` and as a followup to the two other attempts of mine, i propose to remove the redundant `$nothing` built-in variable 😋 this PR is the first step, deprecating `$nothing`. a followup PR will remove it altogether and wait for 0.87 👍 ⚙️ **details**: a new `NOTHING_VARIABLE_ID = 3` has been added, parsing `$nothing` will create it, finally a `Value::Nothing` will be produced and a warning will be reported. this PR already fixes the `toolkit.nu` module so that it does not throw a bunch of warnings each time 👌 # User-Facing Changes `$nothing` is now deprecated and will be removed in 0.87 ```nushell > $nothing Error: × Deprecated variable ╭─[entry #1:1:1] 1 │ $nothing · ────┬─── · ╰── `$nothing` is deprecated and will be removed in 0.87. ╰──── help: Use `null` instead ``` # Tests + Formatting tests have been updated, especially - `nothing_fails_string` - `nothing_fails_int` which use a variable called `nil` now to make sure `nothing` does not support cell paths 👍 # After Submitting classic deprecation mention 👍

amtoine added 18 commits August 4, 2023 13:08

rename Value::nothing to Value::null

d76e8c7

rename Value::Nothing to Value::Null

59cf5d5

rename Type::Nothing to Type::Null

16870c1

rename Value::is_nothing to Value::is_null

93c2217

fix the documentation of Value::null manually

40e72e8

rename Value::test_nothing to Value::test_null

033d432

rename Flatshape::Nothing to FlatShape::Null

dea4e6c

rename Expr::Nothing to Expr::Null

a1a7035

rename more Value::nothing manually

c13fa20

rename PipelineData::is_nothing to PipelineData::is_null

593d4e8

rename SyntaxShape::Nothing to SyntaxShape::Null

fb99d67

rename Value::Nothing to Value::Null manually

fb01bc0

command used ```nushell sd "Value::Nothing" "Value::Null" **/*.rs ```

rename Type::Nothing to Type::Null manually

f04e171

command used ```nushell sd "Type::Nothing" "Type::Null" **/*.rs ```

fix the last occurence manually

f3676cd

the rest are ony comments and the LICENSE.

rename $null to null to prepare the removal of $null

1ed834a

commands used ```nushell sd --string-mode "$nothing" "null" **/*.rs sd --string-mode "$nothing" "null" **/*.nu sd --string-mode "$null" "null" **/*.rs sd --string-mode "$null" "null" **/*.nu ``` format

remove the $null variable (previously $nothing)

5061b8b

put the null keys in quotes in the config

4dac3bb

amtoine mentioned this pull request Aug 10, 2023

rename "nothing" type to null #9973

Closed

amtoine closed this Aug 10, 2023

amtoine deleted the remove-nothing-type-and-value branch August 10, 2023 11:23

sholderbach mentioned this pull request Sep 12, 2023

Inconsistent naming of types and their associated commands and SyntaxShapes #10332

Open

24 tasks

amtoine mentioned this pull request Sep 23, 2023

remove the $nothing variable #10478

Merged

NotTheDr01ds mentioned this pull request Oct 21, 2023

null | describe still reports nothing #10800

Closed

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use only `null` as the value and the type for "nothing"#9918

use only `null` as the value and the type for "nothing"#9918
amtoine wants to merge 18 commits intonushell:mainfrom
amtoine:remove-nothing-type-and-value

amtoine commented Aug 4, 2023

Uh oh!

amtoine commented Aug 4, 2023

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amtoine commented Aug 10, 2023

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amtoine commented Aug 4, 2023

⚠️ breaking change ⚠️

Description

👍👍 pros:

👎👎 cons:

conclusion

User-Facing Changes

Tests + Formatting

After Submitting

Uh oh!

amtoine commented Aug 4, 2023

Uh oh!

amtoine commented Aug 10, 2023

Uh oh!

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