Comments on: Exceptions are your Friends http://www.huyng.com/archives/exceptions-are-your-friends/537/ Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:05:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Adrian http://www.huyng.com/archives/exceptions-are-your-friends/537/comment-page-1/#comment-2274 Adrian Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:20:42 +0000 http://www.huyng.com/?p=537#comment-2274 $ python -O -c 'assert False' && echo ok ok $ python -O -c ‘assert False’ && echo ok
ok

]]> By: Casey Duncan http://www.huyng.com/archives/exceptions-are-your-friends/537/comment-page-1/#comment-2271 Casey Duncan Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:43:58 +0000 http://www.huyng.com/?p=537#comment-2271 As with every great rule, there are great exceptions (bad pun I know). To the above I would say that one type of program that should try to keep plodding along as long as possible in the face of errors and inconsistencies is a video game. Unless you are running it in debug mode, it should be tolerant of certain wonky states unless there is simply no way to go on. In games you are often looping through various data structures that are changing constantly and can get themselves into infinite combinations of states. Some degree of \fault\ tolerance is often valuable. For instance you may sometimes need to watch out for KeyErrors (in particular when deleting things) and let them pass silently. Of course doing this well without creating a worse chaos is an art unto itself. As with every great rule, there are great exceptions (bad pun I know). To the above I would say that one type of program that should try to keep plodding along as long as possible in the face of errors and inconsistencies is a video game. Unless you are running it in debug mode, it should be tolerant of certain wonky states unless there is simply no way to go on.

In games you are often looping through various data structures that are changing constantly and can get themselves into infinite combinations of states. Some degree of \fault\ tolerance is often valuable. For instance you may sometimes need to watch out for KeyErrors (in particular when deleting things) and let them pass silently.

Of course doing this well without creating a worse chaos is an art unto itself.

]]> By: Huy http://www.huyng.com/archives/exceptions-are-your-friends/537/comment-page-1/#comment-2269 Huy Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:06:40 +0000 http://www.huyng.com/?p=537#comment-2269 Funny how one quote obviates the need for this entire rant :) . "import this" brings new insight every single time I look. Funny how one quote obviates the need for this entire rant :) . “import this” brings new insight every single time I look.

]]> By: nes http://www.huyng.com/archives/exceptions-are-your-friends/537/comment-page-1/#comment-2268 nes Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:24:26 +0000 http://www.huyng.com/?p=537#comment-2268 "Errors should never pass silently." (aphorism 10, Zen of Python, Tim Peters) “Errors should never pass silently.” (aphorism 10, Zen of Python, Tim Peters)

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