[Python-Dev] GeneratorExit inheriting from Exception

[Nick Coghlan]

Barry Warsaw wrote:
> Exception
> +- KeyboardInterrupt
> +- GeneratorExit
> +- SystemExit
> +- StopIteration
> +- Error
> |  +- ImportError
> |  +- (etc.)
> |
> +- Warning
>    +- UserWarning
>    +- (etc.)
> 
> Use defined errors should inherit from Error, not Exception.  With this,
> "except Exception" would be a synonym for bare except, while "except
> Error" would be the standard idiom for letting non-error exceptions pass
> through.
> 
> I don't know whether this is possible for Python 2.5, but I think it
> should be what we strive for for Py3K, and I do not think BaseException
> is at all necessary.

The main problems I have with the idea are the fact that a large fraction of 
the user-defined exceptions out there already inherit from Exception (and this 
has been pushed for a long time as the right thing to do) and the fact that 
"except Exception:" has also been pushed for years as the preferred 
alternative to a bare "except:".

Rather than trying to change course midstream, I *like* the fact that the PEP 
352 hierarchy introduces BaseException to bring the language itself into line 
with what people have already been taught. Breaking things in Py3k is all well 
and good, but breaking them gratuitously is something else entirely :)

I also agree with the point made during the PEP 348/352 discussions that 
StopIteration reaching any except clause that isn't specifically expecting it 
*is* an error. Direct calls to an iterator's next method need to expect the 
StopIteration and decide how to handle it - not handling it is a bug.

For KeyboardInterrupt/SystemExit/GeneratorExit, it is clear that the standard 
behaviour should be to reraise them - the entire point of those exceptions is 
to shut down an entire call stack. StopIteration, on the other hand, merely 
indicates that a particular iterator has completed, not that the entire stack 
of iterators should be shut down.

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
---------------------------------------------------------------
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