I suspect that part of the appeal is that null pointers are low-hanging fruit. They're easy to point out and relatively easy to "solve" in the type system, which can make the win feel larger than it actually is.
I agree. I find that Options are more desirable for API-design than making function-bodies easier to understand/maintain. I'm kind of surprised I don't use Maybe(T) more frequently in Odin for that reason. Perhaps it's something to do with my code-scale or design goals (I'm at around 20k lines of source,) but I'm finding multiple returns are just as good, if not better, than Maybe(T) in Odin... it's also a nice bonus to easily use or_return, or_break, or_continue etc. though at this point I wouldn't be surprised if Maybe(T) were compatible with those constructs. I haven't tried it.
To make `Maybe(T)` feel like a multiple return, you just need to do `.?` so `maybe_foo.? or_return` would just the same.
But as you say, it is more common to do the multiple return value thing in Odin and not need `Maybe` for a return values at all. Maybe is more common for input parameters or annotating foreign code, as you have probably noticed.
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I agree. I find that Options are more desirable for API-design than making function-bodies easier to understand/maintain. I'm kind of surprised I don't use Maybe(T) more frequently in Odin for that reason. Perhaps it's something to do with my code-scale or design goals (I'm at around 20k lines of source,) but I'm finding multiple returns are just as good, if not better, than Maybe(T) in Odin... it's also a nice bonus to easily use or_return, or_break, or_continue etc. though at this point I wouldn't be surprised if Maybe(T) were compatible with those constructs. I haven't tried it.
To make `Maybe(T)` feel like a multiple return, you just need to do `.?` so `maybe_foo.? or_return` would just the same.
But as you say, it is more common to do the multiple return value thing in Odin and not need `Maybe` for a return values at all. Maybe is more common for input parameters or annotating foreign code, as you have probably noticed.