OK, I can see that the Python way of doing things is very different. However I think Roy made a very pertinent point "Imagine if do_setup_code or do_stuff_with(f) unexpectedly threw an IOError for some reason totally unrelated to the file not existing." This is the kind of situation that the rule 'catch it on the next line' is trying to avoid
What I didnt realise till I read Thomas comment is that the try except had an else clause. This is nice. But seriously, if you expected to write reasonably large business applications with multiple people in the team and teams changing over time what would you give as a guideline for Error handling DarkCowherd -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
