> Template libraries that have to deal with stuff that could throw vs couldn't end up with lots of nearr duplicate code, twice as much needed test coverage, and/or less efficiency if you just cover the could-throw case. And you will still probably get it wrong.
Highly-generic container libraries constitute a tiny minority of all code, and even in this kind of code (of which I've written plenty), the tiny local optimizations that we can do if we, say, know we have a nothrow move constructor do not constitute anything near a 2x code size penalty.
You should be grateful that C++ lets you specialize code for can-fail and cannot-fail cases. Try doing that in a sloppy-exceptions language like Java.
> Exceptions can work ok in a GCed language, but I haven't seen them work well otherwise.
I have hundreds of thousands of lines of my own C++ code that say otherwise. BTW: ever hear of this weird startup called "Facebook"? All of their C++ code uses exceptions. Nevertheless, contra certain prominent C++ influencers, rivers have not flowed with blood, locusts have failed to eat the crops, and the firstborn of the nation are safe in their beds.
