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Throw is about control flow – not error handling
Episode 184

Throw is about control flow – not error handling

Sam and Ryan talk about why it’s better to think of throw as a general-purpose JavaScript language feature rather than something that should only be used for error handling. They discuss the ambiguity around the phrase “error handling”, situations that call for dealing with errors locally vs. globally, and how throw can be useful for non-error control flow. They also discuss the problems with trying to shoehorn dynamic features into a static site.

Frontend First

April 10, 20241h 4m

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Show Notes

Sam and Ryan talk about why it’s better to think of throw as a general-purpose JavaScript language feature rather than something that should only be used for error handling. They discuss the ambiguity around the phrase “error handling”, situations that call for dealing with errors locally vs. globally, and how throw can be useful for non-error control flow. They also discuss the problems with trying to shoehorn dynamic features into a static site.

Topics include:

  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 4:07 - Error handling vs. throw-try/catch
  • 23:34 - Errors vs. Exceptions
  • 31:52 - How Next.js uses throw for non-error control flow
  • 40:44 - Adding a dynamic feature to a static site

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