Change the name of ArrayBoundsException in druntime

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Jarrett Billingsley wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:49 AM, Jacob Carlborg <doobnet at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I think the name ArrayBoundsException should be changed to a more general
>> name like BoundsException, OutOfBoundsException or
>> IndexOutOfBoundsException. Then you can use the exception in every class
>> that have some sort of index operation and not just for an array/array
>> class.
>>
> 
> 2nded.

I agree. In fact I wanted to ask you all the following question. What do
you think about the current exception hierarchy in phobos? I think it is
terrible. Each module in std you open, the first piece of code to be
seen is the "class ThisModuleNameException" definition. In many (most?)
cases the module-specific exception does absolutely nothing in addition
to its base class. The putative reader (including me) tends to scroll 
non-critically over that passage without even blinking, mumbling in a 
trance - of course, yes, each module should define at least one 
exception type.

Until one day when you stop scrolling and say, wait a minute. This all 
is repetition. And there are alternatives to catching by type - you can 
catch the base type and consult a field. And in fact I don't remember 
seeing code that depends on exceptions thrown from different modules 
having different types. There's something wrong here!

I think most exception classes in phobos should be yanked if it's 
possible for their functionality (often nil) to be moved in the 
Exception base class. The module name should be a member. If someone 
needs to deal with an exception thrown from a specific module, they can 
always inspect the field. We don't need a huge hierarchy for that.


Andrei