[Roboprog]

There are times when Go (et al) style multiple return values would better serve a function than exceptions.

For example, a function to parse a string into a number should return both a number-reference, and a flag of some kind (or maybe just an Option). Crap input should not generate an exception like out-of-memory or an I/O error. Trying to dereference the number w/out checking to see if the string was parseable COULD generate a not-mandatory-to-check exception, though.

I guess there is a certain amount of tension between the idea that functions/methods should document the kind of errors/exceptions they might have, and between the annoyance that is all the crappy do-nothing catch clauses that turn around and re-vomit wrapper exceptions that ultimately land in a "well, it didn't work" log message and punt, rather than really "handling" the original exception in any way, shape or form.