Python style: exceptions vs. sys.exit()

[Ross Ridge]

Grant Edwards  <invalid at invalid> wrote:
> Same here.  It's like an automotive engine controls designer
> asking if a failed O2 sensor should turn on the check engine
> light or blow up the car.
 
Ross Ridge <rridge at csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
> No, it's more like asking if the failed sensor should turn on
> a strange and mysterious light on the dashboard
 
Grant Edwards  <invalid at invalid> wrote:
> You're right.  I had forgotten that sys.exit() is actually
> raising the system exit exception, and that the application
> calling the library could handle that exception.
 
Ross Ridge a écrit :
> Well, my point was that exceptions in Python are a bit like a car's
> check engine light.  Few drivers know what this mysterious light means,
> and aren't prepared to do anything about it when it goes on.

Bruno Desthuilliers  <bdesth.quelquechose at free.quelquepart.fr> wrote:
>You're kidding, aren't you ?

Of course not.  Plenty of people were quick to say that the exception
should be passed through to the caller.  No one said this behaviour
should be documented.  There may be little practical difference bewteen
calling sys.exit() after printing an error and progating an exception
if no one using the library knows that it could generate that exception
in those circumstances.

					Ross Ridge

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