Yes, we debated it for years.
Literally the day we launched, a user filed an issue requesting support for null safety: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/22
For most of Dart's history, that was the #1 upvoted issue on the issue tracker.
Back in 2011 before I worked directly the language, I proposed null safety:
http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2011/10/29/a-proposal-for-...
I'm immensely glad we finally did it, even though the migration has been a ton of work.
Yes, we debated it for years.
Literally the day we launched, a user filed an issue requesting support for null safety: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/22
For most of Dart's history, that was the #1 upvoted issue on the issue tracker.
Back in 2011 before I worked directly the language, I proposed null safety:
http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2011/10/29/a-proposal-for-...
I'm immensely glad we finally did it, even though the migration has been a ton of work.