Yeah, I mean, that can work, but I feel like the phrase "in modern C++" always has the hidden caveat of "Unless you're stuck with a bunch of legacy junk". A lot

Yeah, I mean, that can work, but I feel like the phrase "in modern C++" always has the hidden caveat of "Unless you're stuck with a bunch of legacy junk". A lot of times you end up having to use legacy code you can't trust. Your stuff is RAII, but this old legacy code you have to link with... and nobody wants to rewrite it... you probably get the point. I'm not against C++ exceptions, I just think there are legit reasons for shops to avoid it in that particular language . But I like exceptions in general.