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Detect unhandled exceptions

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znakeeye
Tomato Guru

379 Posts

Posted - May 09 2008 : 10:07:50 AM

A lacking feature in C++ is the ability to detect when exceptions are not handled.

foo(bool x)
{
  if (x)
     throw("Error");
}

foo(true); // The compiler will not see this problem!

Why not add a VAX-feature where you list such possible errors? You can simply walk up the call-trees and see if any thrown objects might cause an "Unhandled exception".

A "Fix errors"-button would also be convenient, where the necessary code is added:

foo(true); // I press "Fix" and it becomes...

try
{
   foo(true);
}
catch(const char *e)
{
   // TODO: Handle exception
}

feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
18951 Posts

Posted - May 09 2008 : 11:07:55 AM

An interesting idea, but I don't see how VA could hope to do this. You need to know how the code will be compiled, since you need to allow for conditional statements:

foo(bool x)
{
  if (x)
#ifdef USING_EXCEPTIONS
     throw("Error");
#else
     return -1;
#endif
}

Also when does VA analyse the code? It cannot be analysed while you are editing it, since you have not finished writing it.

Have you looked into static analysis tools?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness

znakeeye
Tomato Guru

379 Posts

Posted - May 09 2008 : 4:44:48 PM

It should analyze when the user tells it to do so. Just as it finds references when we tell it to :)

The more errors you can find at syntactical level, the better! Also, even if you have an #ifdef, like yours, you should indeed have a catch-block (inside an #ifdef too, of course). Hence, those defines don't affect this.

If there is a "throw" there should always be a corresponding "catch"!

(And no, I don't use such tools. No need to, since VAX makes me code like a true master :P)