Error Handling

Abstract

Error handling is concerned with failures due to many causes: errors in the compiler or its environment (hardware, operating system), design errors in the program being compiled, an incomplete understanding of the source language, transcription errors, incorrect data, etc. The tasks of the error handling process are to detect each error, report it to the user, and possibly make some repair to allow processing to continue. It cannot generally determine the cause of the error, but can only diagnose the visible symptoms. Similarly, any repair cannot be considered a correction (in the sense that it carries out the user’s intent); it merely neutralizes the symptom so that processing may continue.