Re: [boost] Re: first sight

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-01-18 11:08:17

At 09:33 AM 1/18/2002, David Abrahams wrote:

 >----- Original Message -----
 >From: "terekhov" <terekhov_at_[hidden]>
 >
 >> > Not really. Sometimes, for example at a 'C' API boundary, you
 >> simply have to
 >> > use catch(...) so you can prevent an exception from crashing your
 >> caller.
 >> > Tom Becker has already pointed that out.
 >>
 >> Perhaps Tom Becker or you could clarify this issue a bit more...
 >> (for slowly thinking people, such as me and a couple of my
 >> colleagues here)
 >
 >If you are writing C++ code that gets called from another language, you
 >generally can't let an exception propagate out of your outer-level
 >function.
 >If you don't happen to know the exception, at least you can report /some/
 >error. If you don't catch(...), you will crash your caller unless you
 >happen to know (a base of) every exception type that can propagate into
 >your function.

Dave,

While I can understand you not wanting to invest the effort of writing a 
book on exceptions, please consider some other way of transferring your 
knowledge to others.

For example, developing your paper 
http://www.boost.org/more/error_handling.html into an exception handling 
FAQ.

The FAQ format seems well suited to organic growth. ("Organic" is a 
euphemism for unorganized growth:-)  You just add to the document as issues 
arise.  Your answer above gets added under something like "Is catch(...) 
without a rethrow ever appropriate?"

Over time, the document grows into something really worthwhile.  Far more 
valuable that just the sum of the value of its parts.

--Beman