> The latter [the conditions mechanism for error handling] still has no analogue in other languages.
Could you explain this for a non-Lisp person? (I have some understanding of macros already.)
Could you explain this for a non-Lisp person? (I have some understanding of macros already.)
Instead of unwinding the stack when a condition is signaled, handler code is invoked in the dynamic context of the signal and thus has much more information available to decide how to recover.
If a decision on how to recover can't be made programmatically, the system kicks out to the user where they are presented with the choices you have given them.
See: http://www.nhplace.com/kent/Papers/Condition-Handling-2001.h... for more.