So I took a quick look at https://github.com/schmittjoh/php-option -- it appears to be a wrapper object around queries that can throw an exception for you if the wrapped value is null (exactly like just using exceptions in the first place), or can check for nullness and replace it with an alternate value (equivalent to an if/then or try/catch block, just in a function call instead of a block construct).
At best, it's syntactic sugar and adds no expressiveness to the language. At worst, it complicates the codebase by adding another coding pattern that would be different from the rest of the codebase. I don't think this would be a particularly useful pattern to follow. -- brion On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 12:45 PM, Brion Vibber <[email protected]> wrote: > Out of curiosity, what's an actual example of code where the execution > flow of exceptions is significantly more surprising than the execution flow > of a billion manual checks to avoid "Fatal error: Call to a member function > foo() on a non-object"? > > I've heard the vague claim that exceptions are confusing for years, but > for the life of me I've never seen exception-handling code that looked more > complex or confusing than code riddled with checks for magic return values. > > -- brion > > > On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 11:20 AM, Erik Bernhardson < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Within mediawiki there is a split between returning false/null and >> throwing >> exceptions. There is also the Status class used by the wikitext >> parser(the >> Status class is somewhat closely tied to the parser reducing reusability >> though). essentially there are 3 kinds of error handling used within >> mediaiki. >> >> We talked amongst the Flow team and agreed that we prefer false/null over >> exceptions, mostly due to issues where exceptions can short-circuit the >> expected execution path just about everywhere in a non-obvious manner(a >> big >> enough issue that java uses checked exceptions, another world of pain). >> During code review we spend a reasonable amount of time just ensuring >> that >> functions that can return false/null are actually checked. >> >> Moving forward, the Flow team is considering using a php implementation >> that follows the ideas of the haskell Maybe monad( >> https://github.com/schmittjoh/php-option ). This is, in concept, rather >> similar to the Status class the wikitext parser returns. We would like to >> use this library as a way to more explicitly handle error situations and >> reduce the occurrences of forgetting to check false/null. This particular >> pattern is very common in Functional languages. >> >> I do believe this method of error handling is friendlier to programmers >> memory, easier to code review, and more explicit about what happens in the >> error condition. Are there any concerns with the Flow project moving >> forward and utilizing this as our primary error handling mechanism rather >> than returning false/null? >> >> Erik B. >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikitech-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l > > > _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
