Why is it not possible to use "nil" any more in init files ?

[Alexandre Oberlin]

Hello everyone,


I was somewhat forced to upgrade from emacs 23 to 24 (23 would not start  
after some Debian upgrading).
Then in emacs 24 the command (tool-bar-mode nil) in my .emacs was  
understood as if I do want a toolbar...

I know that departing from proven approaches for no sensible reason is top  
of the art but is there any kind of other rationale to make the thing not  
backward-compatible?


Cheers,


Alexandre