Dereferencing nil pointer behaves unexpectedly

[pigpigyyy]

Description:

When dereferencing a nil pointer, the behavior is inconsistent with expectations. Specifically, dereferencing a nil pointer for a field does not cause a runtime error and instead returns the zero value for a field.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Define a struct type with a field.
2. Create a nil pointer to the struct.
3. Attempt to access a field via the nil pointer.

Code example:

type MyStruct: struct{
  Value: int
}

func main {
  myStruct: *MyStruct // nil pointer
  println(myStruct.Value) // print 0
}

Expected Behavior:

The program should produce a runtime error indicating an invalid memory access, similar to the behavior in Go:

package main

import "fmt"

type MyStruct struct {
  Value int
}

func main() {
  var myStruct *MyStruct // nil pointer
  fmt.Println(myStruct.Value) // panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
}

Environment:

• Wa-lang Version: 0.19.0

Additional Notes:

This behavior could lead to silent errors in programs, making debugging challenging. Aligning this behavior with Go would enhance developer experience and reliability.