Re: [Caml-list] assert caught by try with _

[Jason Hickey <jyh@cs.caltech.edu>]

Chris Hecker wrote:
> Is the the "right thing" for assert to be caught by a try ... with _ -> 
> ... block?

I don't know.  It seems reasonable to have exceptional conditions caught 
by the exception handler...

However, it may be reasonable to ask for more than one exception 
type--it seems like poor software engineering to statically list *all* 
the possible reasonable exceptions in a try/with block, except for 
Assert_failure.  This idea will fail as new exceptions are added.

To help avoid this problem, in our work we generally declare a type of 
application errors (not the exact syntax but close enough):

    type application_error =
       NoClue
     | BadIdea of string
     | IWouldIfICouldButICantSoIWont
     | ...

    exception ApplicationError of application_error

All raises are of the form (raise (ApplicationError ...)), and the 
"default" exception handler is (try ... with ApplicationError _ -> ...). 
  This idea works ok, but is not scalable.

Jason

-- 
Jason Hickey                  http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~jyh
Caltech Computer Science      Tel: 626-395-6568 FAX: 626-792-4257

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