[Exceptional C++ Style] Item 12: Exception Safety: Is itWort hit?

[Kevlin Henney]

In message 
<20041203105512.MPVJ1113.aamta03-winn.mailhost.ntl.com@[62.253.162.64]>, 
Ric Parkin <ric.parkin at ntlworld.com> writes
>
>Hmmm, is one way to have a signal handler and throw an exception from 
>that? I know that's rather naughty, but we're deep into specifics 
>anyway.

So naughty that some systems crash when you do it :->

I remember trying this out on one platform (Ultrix) many years ago (as 
you might guess from the OS) and it worked, so I promptly tried it out 
on another (OSF/1, which became Digital Unix, which became Tru64) to 
check for de facto portability: it crashed. The exception actually 
missed main: signal handlers are not necessarily executed on the same 
stack as the thread they originated in, so unwinding in the hope you 
reach main may well prove fruitless.

And then, eventually, the standard came out and confirmed that is was a 
definite no-no.

Kevlin
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