Re: [ft] FT_Done_Face Should Not Return An Error

[Gregor Mückl]

On 5/5/2018 11:32 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Sat, 5 May 2018 19:49:30 +0200, Gregor Mückl wrote:
>
> > Please don't create another library that blindly terminates its host
> > program on a whim.
>
> s/whim/internal consistency failure/

Which is a whim as far as the caller is concerned, isn't it?

> > Returning an error really is the right thing to do
> > here. Just make it clear that this is a bad error.
>
> And what exactly is the caller supposed to do about it?

Whatever the hell it pleases to do. I've outlined a few possibilities 
already. Depending on what the program is for, it may need to do some 
things even if (or especially because) things went wrong.

Just don't assume that you know better than the creator of the host 
program when it is okay to bail and how to do so. This is highly 
dependent on the actual purpose of the program - which you can't assume 
anything about. It could be a database frontend, a game or a medical device.

The only thing that I could possibly see myself agreeing with is a set 
of asserts that can be compiled in conditionally in specialized debug 
builds. So you'd get to break into the debugger if one of these very bad 
situations happen. A release build should be more optimistic and try to 
keep running instead, reporting the error.