[erlang-questions] Package Support/Use

[Robert Virding]

Sorry, I find this discussion completely ridiculous!

Having everything as an exception is just as stupid and difficult to 
manage as having nothing as an exception! Irrespective if you define the 
exceptions as part of the documentation of a function, it is not a 
documentation problem as such.

Save exceptions for things which are truly exceptional or program errors 
or where things have gone wrong.

If the arguments to file:open have the wrong format or are wrong then it 
is a program error and should be signalled with an exception, if the 
file does not exist then it is application dependant whether it is an 
exception or an accepted return. If I signal both as an exception then I 
will always have to be able to handle the exception case which will 
realy complicate the programmers job.

"Let's see which exceptions signaled a file which wasn't there? Ah, 
these 5 exceptions handle that case. I know I will write a new library 
function which handles these cases for me which will make my life easier."

Perhaps we should have used {yes,Value}|{no,Reason} instead of the more 
loaded ok/error?

I have been known to have rather dogmatic views sometimes (often) but 
soem commonsense is needed.

Robert