#exceptionhandling

From pear

An error is defined as an unexpected, invalid program state from which it is impossible to recover.

An exception should be thrown whenever an error condition is met.

The thrown exception should contain enough information to debug the error and quickly identify the error cause. Note that, during production runs, no exception should reach the end-user, so there is no need for concern about technical complexity in the exception error messages.

Exceptions should never be used as normal program flow. This requirement is equivalent to requiring that exceptions be thrown only on error conditions, and never in normal program states.

From the book "Code complete":

Use exceptions to notify about things that should not be ignored. 

Don't use exceptions if the error can be handled locally.

Make sure the exceptions are at the same level of abstraction as the rest of your routine.

Exceptions should be reserved for what's truly exceptional.

From ralphschindler

In PHP 5.3, the base exception class now handles nesting. What is nesting? Nesting is the ability to catch a particular exception, create a new exception object to be thrown with a reference to the original exception. This then allows the caller access to both the exception thrown from within the consumed library of the more well known type, but also access to the exception that originated this exceptional behavior as well.

Why is this useful? Typically, this is most useful in code that consumes other code that throws exceptions of its own type. This might be code that utilizes the adapter pattern to wrap 3rd party code to deliver some kind of adaptable functionality, or simply code that utilizes some exception throwing PHP extension.

php.net links:

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/language.exceptions.extending.php

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/spl.exceptions.php

http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.errorexception.php

http://php.net/manual/en/errorfunc.constants.php

http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-exception-handler.php

zf1.12 error handling

http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.12/en/zend.controller.plugins.html

http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.12/en/zend.controller.exceptions.html

http://framework.zend.com/manual/2.2/en/modules/zend.exception.html

http://framework.zend.com/manual/1.12/en/zend.exception.using.html

https://github.com/zendframework/zf1/blob/master/library/Zend/Exception.php

http://akrabat.com/zend-framework/handling-exceptions-in-a-front-controller-plugin/

http://www.dragonbe.com/2007/11/error-handling-in-zend-framework.html

Capture E_ERROR (fatal)

http://insomanic.me.uk/post/229851073/php-trick-catching-fatal-errors-e-error-with-a

with zf1.2: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16284235/zend-framework-error-page-for-php-fatal-errors

StackOverflow

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3992078/trigger-error-vs-throwing-exceptions