How can we stop the spreading insecure codingexamplesattraining classes, etc.?

[dcrocker at eschertech.com (David Crocker)]

Also, exceptions (unlike gotos) cannot be used to jump backward, thereby
creating hidden loops.

Used correctly, exceptions eliminate large amounts of code that would otherwise
be required to handle unexpected failures at every level in a function call
stack and propagate such failures upwards by way of return codes etc. to a point
at which some remedial action can be taken. Exceptions can certainly be misused,
but they are much better than the alternatives in many situations.

David Crocker, Escher Technologies Ltd.
Consultancy, contracting and tools for dependable software development
www.eschertech.com



-----Original Message-----
From: sc-l-bounces at securecoding.org [mailto:sc-l-bounces at securecoding.org] On
Behalf Of der Mouse
Sent: 31 August 2006 22:45
To: SC-L at securecoding.org
Subject: Re: [SC-L] How can we stop the spreading insecure
codingexamplesattraining classes, etc.?


> > ever heard of exceptions?  They're basically goto plus limited state.  
> > Spaghetti lives!

Not at all.  Exceptions are not like gotos; in particular, an exception cannot
be used to jump *into* a construct.  The major problems with gotos are that they
can be used to do branches that are downward or sideways in the code parse tree
(versus "structured" constructs, which do such branches upward only).
Exceptions are upward-only branches, and as a result don't have most of the
problems gotos do.

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