Roughly ~50% of the C++ ecosystem compiles with -fno-exceptions[1]. So using return values instead of exceptions is not against the language's idioms at all. It

Roughly ~50% of the C++ ecosystem compiles with -fno-exceptions[1]. So using return values instead of exceptions is not against the language's idioms at all. It's one of the reasons std::nothrow exists, after all. Similarly while exceptions are part of the Java idioms, it does after all have checked exceptions even, it's incredibly common to not use that idiom on constructors, where it's weird. Just because a thing is an idiom in some cases doesn't mean it's the expected idiom in ALL cases. And if an idiom is dumb it doesn't mean you should just do it to follow along with the dumb, nor should you go to a language where you're forced to be less safe & less clear just because "but mah idioms". Be the change you want to see. 1: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p0709r0.pdf http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p070... has the survey data (along with a language proposal to make return-value exceptions a proper C++ feature)