Abstract:

We investigate the concept of exception handling as a powerful tool for increasing the reliability of computer programs by automatically detecting and addressing special conditions that arise during the execution stage. Exception handling and related concepts are described and general approaches to exception handling are reviewed and outlined. In particular, exception handling in three object-oriented programming languages Ada 95, C++, and Java are examined and compared which will enable computer science educators to select an appropriate language for teaching the concept of exception handling. While Ada 95 and C++ offer powerful exception handling tools, they lack the reliability of Java’s exception handling partly as they do not implement checked exceptions. While Java seems to be better at exception handling, it is the programmer’s ability of effectively using exception handling that will result in fast executing code.

Keywords:

Exception handling, Java, C++, Ada 95, computer education.