I think everyone interested has had the option of venting his opinion on the subject of checked vs. unchecked exceptions. For the record, here [1] is the relevant thread.
In order to move forward, I propose to reparent the org.apache.cocoon.ProcessingException to extend org.apache.avalon.framework.CascadingRuntimeException instead of CascadingException.
The change is backward-compatible and is a one-line change that can be reverted easily, but might have implications on the way we manage exceptions in the future.
I've already performed the change locally and everything compiles. Tests fail, but they failed also before the change :-(.
So, please cast your votes.
Ugo
[1] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=108188608400002&r=1&w=2
I have next to no time to follow the discussion, or comment fully, but I lean to -.5 because I have a feeling that the thought process is too geared to how developers want to see errors, not how developers should want users to see errors. If the end-result of this is users seeing more stacktraces, or plain 404 or 500 errors, I go -1. If the end result is developers can still "catch" errors in the sitemap and display custom "oops" pages instead (as currently) then I go to +0. If, however, this means backwards incompatibility or behavior change with existing components (external too, not only in our cvs) then I go back to -1 no matter what.
Geoff
