thread-safety definition

[David Abrahams]

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

> I think I disagree, at least philsophically, with the characterization
> of the model as "fragile". But I think I also understand what you
> mean; and the problem isn't with the model, but rather with the effect
> of that model on existing code that all-too-casually and agressively
> eats exceptions it doesn't understand. I think there are vanishingly
> few circumstances where a blind catch(...) without an unconditional
> re-throw should be considered "legitimate". If you don't completely
> understand what an exception means, you cannot claim to have
> completely recovered, and therefore cannot reasonably finalize
> propagation.

The problems with catch(...) eating all exceptions are maybe not as
bad as you think.  As a matter of fact, there are vanishingly few
exceptions that demand special recovery actions that wouldn't work for
all other exceptions.  Systems designed that way tend towards
fragility.


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