----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Call me crazy, but I can see how this may be useful.
You're crazy. :-)
> NullPointerException on its own subclasses RuntimeException. This means
> that you are not required to "catch" runtime exceptions or declare them
> with a "throws" clause of a method.
Bruce Eckel (author of "Thinking in Java") posted an interesting article on
his website a short while back, discussing whether checked exceptions in
general are actually a good idea. The article is at
http://www.mindview.net/Etc/Discussions/CheckedExceptions
if you're interested. I'm still not sure whether I agree with the authors
conclusions, but it's interesting to think about.
> But there are times where having an object be null may have a meaning
other
> than a bug in the code - for example you may read from some third-party
> library that returns a null object as a valid response. If that happens,
> you may need to catch it or declare it in a throws clause.
> NullPointerException won't enforce this becaue it subclasses
> RuntimeException.
I can see where you're coming from with this, but if null is a valid return
value then surely that means it's not an exceptional condition? In that
case, the right thing to do is to check whether the return value is null
rather than waiting for an exception to be thrown...
Cheers,
Vil.
--
Vilya Harvey, Consultant
[EMAIL PROTECTED] / digital steps /
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