General Exception Handling Strategy for .NET

Question

I’m used to having try/catch blocks in every method. The reason for this is so that I can catch every exception at the point of infraction and log it. I understand, from my

Answer 1

I definitely don't use a try catch wrapper around every method (oddly enough, I did when I first started but that was before I learned better ways).

1) To prevent the program from crashing and the users losing their info, I do this

                runProgram:
                try
                {
                    container.ShowDialog();
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    ExceptionManager.Publish(ex);
                    if (MessageBox.Show("A fatal error has occurred.  Please save work and restart program.  Would you like to try to continue?", "Fatal Error", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo) == DialogResult.Yes)
                        goto runProgram;
                    container.Close();
                }

container is where my application starts so this basically puts a wrapper around my entire app so that nothing causes a crash that can't be recovered. This is one of those rare instances where I don't really mind using a goto (it is a small amount of code and still quite readable)

2) I only catch exceptions in methods where I expect something could go wrong (such as a timeout).

3) Just as a point of readibility, if you have a try catch block with a bunch of code in the try section and a bunch in the catch section, it is better to extract that code to a well named method.

   public void delete(Page page) 
   {
      try 
      {
         deletePageAndAllReferences(page)
      }
      catch (Exception e) 
      {
         logError(e);
      }
   }