On: Checked C: extension to C that adds static and dyn...

[petecox]

A language with an array type, e.g. Java, distinguishes between a 'null' array reference and an array of zero length. which could substitute in languages that don't have an option type; SOME([]) vs NONE

But a plain *char in C makes no such distinction.

[haileys → petecox]

There is a difference. An empty string in C is a non-null char* pointer pointing to a zero byte. Passing a null pointer to strlen will crash.

[esrauch → haileys]

A zero-length array can't ever be a valid cstring at all since they have to be null terminated. I don't think that is actually relevant to the claim you are replying to, which is about arrays and pointers and not strings.