[sago]

Thank you. Since the example was nothing to do with exceptions, and we don't want to abuse exceptions by using them when they are not needed, I will rewrite your example to cover the GP case:

   Foo foo = acquireFoo();
   try {
       if (!isValid(foo)) {
          return FAIL;
       }
       moreWork(foo);
       return SUCCESS;
   } finally {
       releaseFoo(foo);
   }

Python could also use the same approach. Though it also has context managers / the with-statement for this specific application.