[Python-Dev] Exception hierarchy [was Re: Another test_compilermystery]

[Delaney, Timothy C (Timothy)]

James Y Knight wrote:

> One issue is that creating a new category of Exceptions doesn't help
> people who do "except:" instead of "except Exception:". It is unlikely
> that person meant to catch things like MemoryError, rather, they were
> just being lazy. I suppose that syntax could be deprecated, at least
> in 
> example code and documentation, in favor of "except Exception" for the
> usual case, and "except Raisable" for the cases where you do actually
> want to catch everything*.

Personally, I would be in favour of a bare except being equivalent in
new code to 'except Exception'. Although this does violate 'in the
presence of ambiguity, resist the temptation to guess'.

Tim Delaney