Sorry for the confusion. I meant that writing exception-safe code is difficult, not that RAII makes it difficult to write exception-safe code. I should have been clearer about that.
The book is excellent. For anyone who wants to use C++ exceptions, it should be required reading. But as someone who has gone through that gauntlet, I feel that I probably would've been better served by spending my time on something other than mastering the finer points of exceptions.
The reason I started talking about C++ exceptions in the first place is because, in my experience, when someone is very pro-RAII (like the original commenter I responded to), they also tend to be pro-exceptions. This isn't always true, but on average, it seems like either people prefer both or prefer neither.
Writing exception-safe code is certainly one of the hardest challenges available in C++, so if you enjoy a good challenge, then it's hard to do better. But if you're just looking to design large-scale systems, it seems like exceptions are unnecessary, as Google has demonstrated by banning the use of exceptions in their codebases.
In my experience, by refraining from using exceptions, it's possible to design large codebases more quickly, with fewer bugs, and without losing any safety or extensibility. However, this is simply my personal experience, and it may be mistaken to generalize this into a claim that all codebases among all C++ teams should refrain from using exceptions.
So, that's all I meant. I was also in excruciating pain yesterday due to a certain tooth that decided to segfault in my mouth, which may have contributed to the adversarial nature of my writing style. I feel bad about how I came across, and I sincerely apologize for it. No excuses, though: I should've done better.