This is fair. I was thinking of this in the context of GC&#x27;d languages, where one instead has nullable <i>types</i> (or sentinel null values). Eg. Java, C#, Python, Ruby, Scala.<p>The C++ case where a distinction between `foo = null` and `*foo = null` exists is indeed much closer to a an option type. You&#x27;re right to point it out.