        behavior. However, this creates a problem for the expected null pointer
          to None conversion: it's illegal to dereference a null pointer value.
        </p>
<p>
          The compromise I've settled on is this:
        </p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
              The default behavior is pass-by-value. If you pass a non-null pointer,
              the pointee is copied into a new Python object; otherwise the corresponding
              Py