Re: Core Exception Throwing and Handling

[Mark Wielaard <mark at klomp dot org>]

On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 22:15 -0500, Phil Muldoon wrote:
> However from a 
> purely client point of view, the client still has to figure out:
> 
> 1) Is the exception bad? Will data corruption possibly occur if I continue;
> 2) Ah oh well, could not get that information, but it is ok to move on.

These are documentation issues. If it isn't documented what a return
value or exception thrown means then complain! And the default
assumption with exceptions thrown but not documented is that it is
really bad.

> This leads me to think of four scenarios:
> 
> 1) Do what we do now. Show the exception in a window, and ask if the 
> user wants to continue or quit
> 2) Log the exception and continue
> 3) Have a high exception throwing threshold. Only "bad" exceptions are 
> thrown.
> 4) Quit the UI, print the stacktrace, wait for bugzillas

3 is the only real option. And if you don't know what the exception is
for then assume it is bad. It is probably a bug and leaves the system in
an unknown state. You cannot make the user happy in that case.

Cheers,

Mark