[LRUG] Exceptions (was IronRuby)

[Ian Cooper]

Often it is catching exceptions that proves the problem, not just for performance, but also because too little code implements the exception guarantees that let you know what state your application will be in following failure, which in turn can make it hard to take appropriate action. Usually, fail fast is the best option when an exception is encountered. It is rare that you know enough to recover successfully at the point of catch, if you did not know enough at the point of throw. If you avoid catching exceptions, then you are implicitly not using them for flow of control any more, and everything should be good. People will only tend to use exceptions where they intend to terminate the process or request.