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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: event-handling approach to errors
Message-ID: <5261@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Mar-85 21:51:35 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5261
Posted: Fri Mar 15 21:51:35 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Mar-85 21:51:35 EST
References: <248@cmu-cs-g.ARPA>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 14

> If you want to see a reasonably good and complete signal mechanism, look into
> Mesa (a Xerox homegrown language, from the same company that brought you
> SmallTalk).  [It's got lots of good stuff.]

I have read both general descriptions of Mesa and the Mesa manual itself.
I also read an interesting retrospective on the language, which among
other things said (roughly), "the exception mechanism is too complex
and gives far too much freedom; it is terribly easy to hang yourself
(or the next guy who maintains your code) with it, and this happens
too often for comfort".  I confess it didn't sound that bad to me, but
they're the ones with Mesa experience.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry