That's exactly why exceptions were invented. They aren't really as magical and hard to understand as the parent poster seems to think. In a theoretical sense,

That's exactly why exceptions were invented. They aren't really as magical and hard to understand as the parent poster seems to think. In a theoretical sense, exceptions just do if err != nil { return err } on every call automatically. I feel like so many developers have been so damaged by Java's approach to exception handling that, of course, error codes seem simpler by comparison. I can't help by feel the recent push-back against exceptions is a step backwards in many situations. A whole generation of developers will have to re-learn the pain that lead to the development of exceptions in the first place.