The Right Approach to Exceptions

[deadalnix]

Le 20/02/2012 18:11, Andrei Alexandrescu a écrit :
> On 2/20/12 11:05 AM, foobar wrote:
>> On Monday, 20 February 2012 at 16:37:28 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>>> On 2/20/12 10:16 AM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>>> "Andrei Alexandrescu"<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote in message
>>>> news:jhtq31$u8q$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>>>>
>>>>> Again, I think this thread clarified we need the "Variant[string]
>>>>> info;"
>>>>> member however we define the hierarchy.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I disagree. I don't see a need for that.
>>>
>>> How would we address custom formatting of e.g. error messages?
>>>
>>> Andrei
>>
>> Separation of concerns - exceptions are meant to notify the *developer*
>> of errors. User facing error messages is a separate concern that
>> exceptions should not be responsible for. it's not just outsourcing the
>> translation strings, it's the developer's job to determine what if at
>> all should be done with the exception.
>
> At the end of the day, a human-readable error message must be properly
> formatted given some exception that signaled an error. So I disagree
> that exceptions are meant for the developer. They are mechanism, a means
> to an end.
>
>> Trivial example: My mom enters a misspelled URL (e.g. goggle.com) in her
>> browser, she does not know or care what 404 means. instead she gets a
>> formated page suggesting her to check her spelling and probably a
>> suggestion to try google.com instead.
>
> Sure, and the question is how the message gets created.
>
>> the exception notifies the developer of the error, the developer does
>> extra processing (e.g. to suggest similar valid websites) and the user
>> get a friendly notification. clearly it doesn't make sense to put all
>> this into the exception.
>
> That extra processing must format the message given the information
> passed by the exception. _Definitely_ it doesn't make sense to put the
> formatting processing in the exception. That's why shipping the
> information outside the exception in a generic format is necessary,
> hence the Variant[string].
>
>
> Andrei

And so variant is the way to go ?

Clearly, this is a very strong arguement in favor of typed Exception, 
that provide usefull information about what went wrong. This is a safe 
approach.

Because this Variant stuff is going to require massive ducktyping of 
Exceptions, with all possible errors involved. The keys in the 
Variant[string] will depend on the Exception the dev is facing. This 
should be avoided and should warn us about the requirement of typed 
Exceptions.