Error Signalling

["Scott E. Fahlman" <Fahlman@C.CS.CMU.EDU>]

    I think changing "is an error" in all cases to "signals an error" would
    violate the /Portability/ motivation on page 1 of the Silver Bible.

    I think we (or the standards committee) have to carefully at all the "is
    an error" and decide if it should be "signals an error".  Many of us
    agree number of argument checking should be signalled unless safety is
    completely turned off, and that even then implementations are encouraged
    to check.

Please, let's not go running off on a tangent.  I was not suggesting
that EVERY case of "is an error" be changed to "signals an error".  I
was merely asking whether people thought that cases like the ones I
enumerated (arg count checking, arg type checking for certain built-in
functions, and array bounds checking) should be tightened up.  After
we've decided how to handle these cases in general we can start
discussing which errors are so hard to check that they should be exempt
from the signalling requirement.

-- Scott