Unchecked exceptions were intended for problems that your code shouldn't really be expected to handle; catching them at the top-level, reporting the error, and

Unchecked exceptions were intended for problems that your code shouldn't really be expected to handle; catching them at the top-level, reporting the error, and letting the user figure out what to is about the only reasonable answer. Checked exceptions are part of your API, things that your code should be dealing with, and catch-wrap-rethrow is often the right thing. It only becomes a problem with Java programmer's tendency towards thin, shallow abstractions.