The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Joel vs Chris

All,

Thought it might be interesting to post this recent blog entry by Chris Brumme (MS .NET guru I believe). It is on the CLR Exception Model.

http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/PermaLink.aspx/d5fbb311-0c95-46ac-9c46-8f8c0e6ae561

You may want to skip to the 'Performance and Trends' section right at the bottom of the entry...

Seeya

Matthew
Monday, October 13, 2003

I'm not seeing the controversy here.

Chris makes it clear what the costs vs. benefits of excpetions and return codes are. It seems clear that there are "performance" benefits to either method for handling errors. It all depends on what you definition of performance is.

Joey P
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Joey,

<quote>
I'm not seeing the controversy here.
</quote>

Chris is mainly pro-exceptions. Joel is mainly against-exceptions (see his latest entry at http://www.joelonsoftware.com).

I was simply posting Chris' article since (like Joel) C Brumme is a widely respected blogger who (like Joel) is generally very well informed.

Seeya

Matthew
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

So today we learnt there are very few hard and fast rules and what is right for one person in one situation may be wrong for another person in another situation.

Oh and that programming is art as well as science.

Another normal day at the office.

Robert Moir
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

My point was that Chris wrote what I thought was a pretty neutral discussion of how the exception model works in the CLR. Including general pros and cons. Joel clearly doesn't like to use them. It just didn't seem like there was a Joel vs. Chris issue. Unlike the Joel vs. lots-o-people issues flying around the net NOW.

Joey P
Wednesday, October 15, 2003