[Python-Dev] Idea for avoiding exception masking

[Raymond Hettinger]

When working on the sets module, a bug was found
where trapping an exception (a TypeError for a mutable
argument passed to a dictionary) resulted in masking
other errors that should have been passed through
(potential TypeErrors in the called iterator for example).

Now, Walter is working on a bug for map(), zip(), and
reduce() where errors in the getiter() call are being
trapped, reported as TypeError (for non-iterability),
but potentially masking other real errors in 
a __iter__ routine.  The current proposed solution is
to remove the PyErr_Format call so that the underlying
error message gets propagated up its original form.
The downside of that approach is that it loses information
about which argument caused the error.

So, here's the bright idea.  Add a function, 
PyErr_FormatAppend, that leaves the original message
intact but allows additional information to be added
(like the name of the called function, identification
of which argument triggered the error, a clue as
to how many iterations had passed, or anything else
that makes the traceback more informative).

Python code has a number of cases where a higher
level routine traps an exception and reraises it with
new information and losing the lower level error
detail in the process.


Raymond Hettinger