Re: Call by Result

Date	2011-06-10 09:30 -0700
From	Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	Re: Call by Result
References	<nkc3v61jg7i21l7n482ce561dq9fdogg3m@4ax.com> <slrniv3i5o.phi.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <95e4uuF3cvU1@mid.individual.net>
Message-ID	<Au6dneSOI9Ra22_QnZ2dnUVZ_sGdnZ2d@earthlink.com> (permalink)

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On 6/10/2011 2:03 AM, Nigel Wade wrote:
...
> And a 5th way could be to return the String and throw an Exception if it
> did not work. Some purists may argue that failure to work is not
> strictly an exception, but if it gets the job done...
>

My view of this is that a method should not be called "getString", or
any variation on that theme, unless its primary purpose is to get a
string. In that case, it should return the string it gets. Any failure
to get the string is an exception relative to its purpose.

Even when programming in C, I regarded the tendency to return a
success/fail flag and treat the main purpose of the function as a side
effect as an unfortunate but necessary ugliness. In Java, I regard it as
pure ugliness, with no justifying necessity.

Some people seem to confuse making something an exception in a
particular interface with regarding it as a whole program failure. That
makes no sense to me. If there is to be any hope of code reuse, method
interfaces must be designed based solely on the method's intended
function, not the overall program design.

Patricia

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Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-09 23:03 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 07:33 +0000
    Re: Call by Result Nigel Wade <nmw-news@ion.le.ac.uk> - 2011-06-10 10:03 +0100
      Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 09:47 +0000
      Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-10 08:23 -0300
        Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 13:12 +0000
          Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-10 15:44 -0300
            Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-12 16:29 +0000
              Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-12 23:00 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-12 23:06 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-14 10:52 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-14 17:13 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-14 17:58 -0300
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-14 21:18 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-14 20:14 -0300
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-15 07:13 -0300
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-15 12:50 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-15 18:52 -0300
                Re: Call by Result lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-15 07:06 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-15 21:33 -0400
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-16 11:03 +0000
                Re: Call by Result "H.J. Sander Bruggink" <sander.bruggink@uni-due.de> - 2011-06-16 13:09 +0200
                Re: Call by Result Lewis Bloch <lewisbloch@google.com> - 2011-06-16 06:59 -0700
                Re: Call by Result "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-06-16 23:14 -0400
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:31 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-12 14:27 -0300
      Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-10 07:20 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-10 09:30 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:44 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:26 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-11 15:07 +0000
        Re: Call by Result Abu Yahya <abu_yahya@invalid.com> - 2011-06-11 23:00 +0530
          Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-11 19:36 +0000
            Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-11 21:06 +0000
              Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 10:53 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-12 09:28 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 17:48 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-12 13:19 -0700
            Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-11 15:39 -0700
              Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-12 11:07 +0000
                Re: Call by Result markspace <-@.> - 2011-06-12 07:02 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-12 09:39 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-14 10:29 +0000
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-14 09:14 -0700
                Re: Call by Result markspace <-@.> - 2011-06-14 09:21 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-14 09:53 -0700
                Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-14 09:57 -0700
            Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:44 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:40 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-10 01:30 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:45 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-06-10 07:50 -0400
  Re: Call by Result Silvio <silvio@moc.com> - 2011-06-10 15:35 +0200
  Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-10 13:56 +0000
  Re: Call by Result Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2011-06-10 07:22 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:56 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:57 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-10 13:50 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:53 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-13 07:20 -0300
            Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-13 08:08 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-11 16:35 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 11:05 +0000
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:56 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-14 00:40 -0700
    Re: Call by Result Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-06-11 21:18 +0000
  Re: Call by Result markspace <-@.> - 2011-06-10 08:43 -0700
  Re: Call by Result RedGrittyBrick <RedGrittyBrick@spamweary.invalid> - 2011-06-10 17:01 +0100
    Re: Call by Result Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-10 16:55 +0000
    Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:59 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-11 16:24 -0700
        Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-12 21:59 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Paul Cager <paul.cager@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-13 07:53 -0700
          Re: Call by Result Wojtek <nowhere@a.com> - 2011-06-14 00:43 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-10 11:55 -0700
  Re: Call by Result Steven Simpson <ss@domain.invalid> - 2011-06-11 09:09 +0100
  Re: Call by Result Cholo Lennon <chololennon@hotmail.com> - 2011-06-16 11:30 -0300
    Re: Call by Result Paul Cager <paul.cager@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-17 02:38 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-17 12:06 -0700
    Re: Call by Result lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-17 06:40 -0700
      Re: Call by Result Cholo Lennon <chololennon@hotmail.com> - 2011-06-17 11:43 -0300

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