Shant Stepanian created VFS-508:
-----------------------------------
Summary: Change FileSystemException to inherit from a
RuntimeException, and not IOException
Key: VFS-508
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VFS-508
Project: Commons VFS
Issue Type: Improvement
Reporter: Shant Stepanian
Attachments: changeFileSystemToRuntime.patch
I'd like to see if we can FileSystemException to inherit from a
RuntimeException, and not IOException
__The reason__
The reason would go back to the whole "Runtime vs. Checked" exception debate,
and I do prefer the RuntimeException argument that with those, you have the
choice on whether to declare the try/catch block upon usage, whereas Checked
exceptions force that on you
In particular, I bring this up because I feel it hurts the usability of the API
to have all operations as a checked exception. I recently looked to convert my
code from using the regular Java JDK file api to the VFS api, and I found that
in a number of places, I now have to add a try/catch block to handle a checked
exception where I previously didn't have to (e.g. File.listFiles() vs.
FileObject.getChildren(), new File("myFile") vs.
VFS.getManager().resolveFile("myFile"))
Having one less impediment to migrate would make it easier to adopt for more
people. As a frame of reference, Hibernate did make a change like this to
convert HibernateException from checked to runtime, and it was fine for them
__Patch and Impact of Change__
I've attached a patch of the change - you can see it is very small, and the
module build passes
In terms of client changes - this would only impact clients that happened to
explicitly expect an IOException in their catch block, and not directly the
FileSystemException. (this affected one piece of code within VFS itself, but
could affect clients).
But I believe that this still would be a beneficial change, as it would make
all clients' code cleaner and make it easier to adopt
--
This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA
(v6.1.4#6159)
