There are actually three error handling paradigms: 1. Return values, like Either in functional languages 2. Exceptions 3. Error handlers, for example Lisp co

There are actually three error handling paradigms: 1. Return values, like Either in functional languages 2. Exceptions 3. Error handlers, for example Lisp condition system. (Unfortunately, this option became less popular in programming languages, probably because Unix botched it.) Now here lies the problem. Paradigm 2 is better than 1, because you don't have to handle the error at the caller (or at least, you don't have to unwrap the type). Paradigm 3 is better than 2, because the stack doesn't get unwounded when the error handler gets called - the error handler can choose to continue the original code. Finally, paradigm 1 is better than 3, because it is just so much simpler to set up and reason about. So it turns out, you're better off using all of them! Although personally I believe exceptions are conceptually wrong, and in almost all cases, either 1 or 3 should be used. (Sadly, option 3 is not well supported in most languages.)