Jane Street's Core seems to prefer options to exceptions

On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 5:10 PM, Hans Ole Rafaelsen <hrafaelsen@gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 7:30 PM, Dario Teixeira <darioteixeira@yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> > What experience does people have to using alternatives to exceptions,
>> > such as option types or exception monads? Does use of third part
>> > libraries that still throws exceptions make such approaches hard to use?
>> > Performance wise it seems to be comparable to catching exceptions or
>> > matching for options, so I guess the difference be might a question of
>> > programming style?
>>
>> Partly yes, though I would say that in Ocaml it is tempting to use
>> exceptions beyond what is reasonable, because they are so cheap and
>> convenient.  As you noted, this can lead to trouble at runtime, which
>> is why some libraries discourage the "exceptional style", preferring
>> option types and forcing users to invoke functions suffixed by "_exc"
>> if they really want to use the exception-based version.
>>
>> Personally, I think the litmus test hinges on whether the supposedly
>> exceptional situation is truly worthy of the name.  If it's a common
>> occurrence, perhaps one should reconsider the use of an "exception".
>> Without meaning to start an holy war, let me just add that even on
>> the Stdlib there are functions (such as Map.S.find) that raise an
>> exception but which should perhaps return an option type.
>>
>> Btw, you didn't mention it explicitly in your message, but I trust you
>> are familiar with "Catch me if you can"? [1]
>>
> I have just read about it, not tested it yet. Do you have any experience
> using this library, especially together with other libraries that also
> provides syntax extension?
>
>
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Dario Teixeira
>>
>> [1]
>> http://dutherenverseauborddelatable.wordpress.com/downloads/exception-monads-for-ocaml/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>
> Hans Ole
>
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