Re: I/O - exception handling

[Sergey Koshcheyev <serko84@hotmail.com>]

Jeffrey Carter wrote:
> I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Close can only raise 
> Status_Error, and only if the file is not open (ARM A.8.2).

Is it really so? The ARM says (regarding Close):

"The exception Status_Error is propagated if the given file is not open."

I'm not a language lawyer, but I don't think this sentence forbids any 
other behavior (like Device_Errors or Use_Errors).

 > Is_Open may not raise an exception (ARM A.8.2).

ARM A.8.2 (29) also says:

"An implementation may propagate Name_Error or Use_Error if an attempt 
is made to use an I/O feature that cannot be supported by the 
implementation due to limitations in the external environment. Any such 
restriction should be documented."

Since Is_Open is an I/O feature, this means to me that it may raise one 
of these exceptions too.

Or am I being way too "legal"?

> So the pattern
> 
> begin
>    Open (File, ...);
> 
>    -- Process File
> 
>    Close (File);
>    -- If Open failed, we do not get here, so this cannot
>    -- raise an exception
> exception
> when others =>
>    if Is_Open (File) then
>       Close (File);
>    end if;
> end;
> 
> is completely safe.

This has "Close (File)" in two places, so it is also against the "do 
everything only once" principle.

Maybe my requirements are too hard and unrealistic, but anyway, I have 
already found an almost perfect solution, described in one of my earlier 
posts (where I ignore errors from Close).

Sergey.