Python style: exceptions vs. sys.exit()

[Craig Allen]

> The
> question is: should the library function be able to just dump to
> sys.exit() with a message about the error (like "couldn't open this
> file"), or should the exception propagate to the calling program which
> handles the issue?
>

my view is that the exceptions are there precisely to tell the calling
program about the error and give the programmer a chance to do
something smart about it. A library, properly, doesn't even know the
context in which it is running, and sys.exit() is pretty heavy handed
for a library to call and shows assumptions beyond what a library
should assume about its running environment.

imho