Don’t Ignore That Error

Do not ignore possible errors in your code. Don’t put off handling errors until “later” (you won’t get around to it).

Use exceptions well, with discipline. Understand your language’s idioms and requirements for effective exception use.

Programmers must be made aware of programmatic errors. Users must be made aware of usage errors.

It’s not good enough to log the error (somewhere), and hope that a diligent operator will notice an error and do something about it one day.

At every step, consider all of the unusual things that might occur, no matter how unlikely you think they’ll be.

Always consider errors that you can recover from, and write appropriate recovery code.

Ensure that your error handling is idiomatic, and uses the appropriate language mechanisms.

Consider all potential code paths as you write your code. Do not plan to handle “unusual” cases later: you’ll forget and your code will be buggy.