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0 pointsjerf2y ago0 comments

I consider use of the "errcheck" linter mandatory for a professional Go programmer, and honestly even the hobbiest really ought to be using it.

Yeah, it might be nice if it were integrated into the language but on the overall cost/benefits analysis of my actual costs & benefits rather than merely aesthetic ones, this one doesn't actually factor very high for me because using errcheck is easy. And I supplement all languages I use seriously with aftermarket checkers so it isn't like this is special pleading for Go, either. I don't trust any language out of the box any more.

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za3faran2y ago

It still doesn't catch everything.

jerfOP2y ago

I am not aware of an option that "catches everything", in any langauge.

za3faran2y ago

Any language with exceptions, checked or unchecked, will not allow errors to unintentionally get swallowed unless you write explicit code to do so. Rust and Zig's error handling also has the same property.

This comes from experience working on large golang code bases, with error linters, and seeing errors silently and unintentionally ignored.

jerfOP2y ago

If you have an error being ignored accidentally and using errcheck, you need to file a bug for them with a test case for it.

If you mean that programmers caught the error and just made it "go away", convincing the checker that it was handled but in fact it was not, that's not something a language can solve. There is no amount of "forcing" a programmer to handle an error that they can't bypass.

cloverich2y ago

Explicit code to do so in Java involves wrapping two error throwing methods in one try catch, which wither have the same error class or downcasting the exception. Its been a long while since Ice used Java but i ran into that in other peoples code in production constantly.

For me it really stood out because thats when i first tried go, and while i found the error handling annoying, i found it rather directly addressed that issue.

valenterry2y ago

In terms of default, there are enough languages where all errors are detected and you are forced to handle them. But if you want a particular mean language, check Idris. No chance to ignore an error by accident.

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za3faran2y ago

It still doesn't catch everything.

jerfOP2y ago

I am not aware of an option that "catches everything", in any langauge.

za3faran2y ago

This comes from experience working on large golang code bases, with error linters, and seeing errors silently and unintentionally ignored.

jerfOP2y ago

If you have an error being ignored accidentally and using errcheck, you need to file a bug for them with a test case for it.

cloverich2y ago

For me it really stood out because thats when i first tried go, and while i found the error handling annoying, i found it rather directly addressed that issue.

valenterry2y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse