Java Style: Properly handling exceptions

Question

I keep getting stuck conceptually on deciding an Exception-handling structure for my project.

Suppose you have, as an example:

public abstract class          


        

Answer 1

Use Runtime Exceptions, combined with an exploding catch-all at the top. It's a bit scary at first, but gets better once you get used to it.

In my web applications, everything thrown is Runtime. There are almost no "throws" clauses, and I only have catchblocks in places I really can (or want) to handle the exception. At the highest level, there is a catch Throwable which renders a technicall error page, and writes a log entry.

A Log4J mailer sends me the log entry and 10 log entries preceding it. So when the client calls, I usually already know that there was a problem.

With proper (unit)testing and clean programming, the added cleanliness and readability outweighs the loss of checked exceptions anytime.