On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Peng Yu <pengyu...@gmail.com> wrote: > I observe that python library primarily use exception for error > handling rather than use error code. > > In the article API Design Matters by Michi Henning > > Communications of the ACM > Vol. 52 No. 5, Pages 46-56 > 10.1145/1506409.1506424 > http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2009/5/24646-api-design-matters/fulltext > > It says "Another popular design flaw—namely, throwing exceptions for > expected outcomes—also causes inefficiencies because catching and > handling exceptions is almost always slower than testing a return > value." > > My observation is contradicted to the above statement by Henning. If > my observation is wrong, please just ignore my question below. > > Otherwise, could some python expert explain to me why exception is > widely used for error handling in python? Is it because the efficiency > is not the primary goal of python?
Correct; programmer efficiency is a more important goal for Python instead. Python is ~60-100x slower than C;[1] if someone is worried by the inefficiency caused by exceptions, then they're using completely the wrong language. Cheers, Chris -- http://blog.rebertia.com [1] http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64/which-programming-languages-are-fastest.php?gcc=on&python=on&calc=chart -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
