I used return codes before I ever used exceptions, and even chafed at exceptions. Exceptions CAN be simpler. It's just an expressive tool, it matters more what

I used return codes before I ever used exceptions, and even chafed at exceptions. Exceptions CAN be simpler. It's just an expressive tool, it matters more what you do with it. I do hate to read code which uses exceptions as a normal part of program flow, it's very GOTO-like and remote and implicit. But I don't write code that way and nothing is forcing me to write code that way. When exceptions are reserved for really exceptional conditions where a requested performance CANNOT continue, they are used much less frequently, and more locally and explicitly. In short I think the problem is a matter of philosophy more than language facilities, and the big differences are within-language rather than between-language. The reason I like to have exceptions used as a convention is that I think a better default for programs which have not yet covered some corner case is for them to decline to run, rather than to run in dishonor.