Re: guile 3 update, halloween edition

[Chris Vine <vine35792468@gmail.com>]

On Thu, 31 Oct 2019 17:20:37 +0100
Andy Wingo <wingo@pobox.com> wrote:
> Greets :)
> 
> On Thu 31 Oct 2019 01:01, Chris Vine <vine35792468@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > "Condition" is a strange word for describing structured error objects,
> > I agree.  However, I think it would be quite confusing to describe
> > error objects as exceptions.  "Error object" or "error condition object"
> > seems a reasonable alternative if the bare word "condition" is thought
> > to be inappropriate.
> 
> I'm very sympathetic to this argument -- an exception seems like a
> thing-in-motion, not a thing-at-rest.  But perhaps it's just the effect
> of habit, setting up expectations about what good names are.  (After
> all, plenty of people seem happy with the term "condition"!)
> 
> Perhaps there is a middle ground of sorts: maybe the manual can
> comprehensively describe what R6RS refers to as conditions using the
> term "exception objects".  WDYT?

I think "exception objects" would be fine.

More broadly, I view an exception as something which makes the current
thread of execution follow an exceptional path (say, implemented by
some kind of continuation object), used generally but not exclusively
to indicate that an error has occurred.  An R6RS or SRFI-35 condition
object on the other hand is a structured error information service,
intended to be a thing (but not the only thing) which might be
propagated as the payload of the exception, and which you can
conveniently match on.

Chris