Data-oriented exception handling

Abstract
Exception handling mechanisms were added to programming languages to segregate normal algorithmic processing from error processing. However, handlers which are typically associated with exceptions through a program's control features, clutter source text when features are nested or when different objects require different responses to exceptions. The authors describe a method for associating handlers with data objects in declarations that better segregates algorithmic and error processing. They call their notion data-oriented exception handling to distinguish it from more conventional, control-oriented mechanisms. Empirical studies of Ada programs indicate that conventional exception handling mechanisms are more complex than necessary and that data-oriented exception handling can be used to produce programs that are smaller, better structured, and easier to understand and modify.

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