Re: [ALACPP] Daily Dose of O'Reilly Goodness

["Peter Oliphant" <peter_oliphant@xxxxxxx>]

Ok, the discussion begins... :)

On the website page discussing exception programming,

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2003/05/05/cpluspocketref.html

the following is a paragraph quote:

"Exception handling is one particularly effective approach to dealing with 
unexpected, or exceptional, conditions. Without exception handling, dealing 
with exceptional conditions often requires complicated, multi-way 
conditionals that are heavily nested and awkward. Exception handling offers 
a natural way to reduce such intricate and error-prone sections of code."

I take - ahem - exception to the first sentence of the paragraph. Exception 
programming does NOT handle "unexpected" cases. It can't. In fact, exception 
handling code deals with EXPECTED but UNUSUAL cases (this is suggested in 
remainder of paragraph). In other words, I don't consider the terms 
"unexpected" and "unusual" to be the same in this context.

Let me illustrate by example. A classic exception is for division by zero. 
An exception is appropriate here because, in general, division of any number 
by any other number causes no problems - EXCEPT - for division by zero. 
Exception code allows the writing of code which IGNORES the division by zero 
possibility in the general case, and then CATCHES the exceptional case of 
division by zero. It allows code to be written without a lot of 'paranoia' 
testing which would have to be done in every call to the code in question 
(e.g.,  if the divisor is zero go to alternate (or skip) processing before 
every single division operation). It therefore saves code space, execution 
time, and simlifies programmer design by allowing the isolation of code 
responsible for the odd cases.

Ok, this is a bit semantical, but what discussions aren't?  ; )

 /== P ==\


> From: "Jon Stewart" <stew1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: stew1@xxxxxxxxxxx
> To: alacpp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [ALACPP] Daily Dose of O'Reilly Goodness
> Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 09:43:19 -0700
>
> Exceptions:
> http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2003/05/05/cpluspocketref.html
>
> Libraries:
> http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2003/05/06/cplusplusian.html
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jon Stewart
> stew1@xxxxxxxxxxx
> _______________________________________________
> alacpp mailing list
> alacpp@xxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.ellipsis.cx/mailman/listinfo/alacpp

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