Exception Safe Perl

[PerlingTheUK]

Dearest Monks,

It has taken me several years that I have given in on a topic and cannot see any option but to include more than simple exception catching in my code. So far all I did was setup a log file and hand out debug versions that would come with an config file that writes a very high detail log file that I could normally interpret to find the errors.

However I am currently importing and converting a file that quite regularly was edited manually and does not quite live uf to its tight formatting standards.

I have seen packages that go a lot further than the standard eval{}; or $SIG{ __DIE__ } = &\catch_me basics and would like to make use of a relatively robust and basic one. However at the same timeI have a list of requirements:

1. Class independent default types: I need to be able to define standard exception types a la "ArrayIndexOutOfBounds" , "StringContainsOnlyNumericCharacters", etc.
2. I need integration into TK to display error messages
3. I need to be able to set up different kinds of error levels due to different kind of debug levels. E. g. report all expected behaviour for internal testing and report fatal for client only.

What are other users using? I am interested in your answers.

[xdg]

I definitely recommend starting with Exception::Class. Among other things, its ability to let you define a hierarchy of exceptions should simplify what is necessary for some of your objectives (independent default types and different "levels" of errors).

Update: I just noticed Simon Cozen's new article "Ten Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Perl" on TPJ. It mentions the sigtrap pragma as another way of trapping signals. YMMV.

[valdez]

Exception::Class::TryCatch is a nice companion module for Exception::Class; the articles cited in the documentation are very helpful; add to that list also "Eight Million Ways to Die" by merlyn published on May 2004 TPJ. Some other useful resources are available at c2.com, see CategoryException.