From: Jeremy Bopp <jeremy@...>
Date: 2010-10-27T00:17:28+09:00
Subject: Re: error handling: two flavors?

On 10/26/2010 9:54 AM, Grary Stimon wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I recall reading somewhere (can't remember where) that there are two
> flavors of error handling available in ruby: 1) for truly unexpected
> contingencies, and 2) for other infrequent but expected contingencies.
> 
> So, I expect a method to return a value, including nil. But
> if the method cannot return a value, including nil, i want it to return
> a result along the lines of 2), above. it's not that i didn't anticipate
> the case that my method might not be able to return a value, including
> nil, rather, if it can't then i need to know based on some indicator
> other
> than nil, which is a meaningful value for my method!
> 
> can anyone refresh me on whether there are these two flavors of error
> handling in ruby?

It sounds like you're remembering reading about exceptions, catch, and
throw:

http://ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/tut_exceptions.html

In your case, I think you want to use exceptions.  I know I haven't seen
throw and catch used very often, especially not for the kind of error
processing you're describing.

-Jeremy