cancellation points report failure

[David Abrahams]

Dave Butenhof <David.Butenhof at hp.com> writes:

> Since a "phobia" is an "abnormal or illogical fear", I'd have to say
> you're wrong on two counts. First, I don't fear it; I merely argue
> that it's rarely usable and far too easy to misuse, and that the cost
> of the feature outweighs its value. And none of that is
> "illogical". Furthermore, since some of the C++ people here seem to
> have enough trouble with the idea of cancel as an exception in the
> first place, (one of those rare goals in which you and I are united),
> nevermind introducing the concept of an ASYNCHRONOUS exception, let's
> just leave this alone, eh?

I, at least, have no trouble with the idea of using C++ exceptions to
report cancellation.  In fact, I think it's a great idea in general.
It's just a really bad idea for functions which can normally be
expected never to throw exceptions to start throwing cancellations
when used in a POSIX threads environment.

IIUC, other "C++ people" who don't like the idea of printf throwing
an exception feel the same way.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com