Error objects: RangeError, TypeError, ValueError

[Brendan Eich]

On Nov 22, 2011, at 10:49 AM, Allen Wirfs-Brock wrote:

> On Nov 22, 2011, at 10:14 AM, Brendan Eich wrote:
> 
>> On Nov 22, 2011, at 9:37 AM, Allen Wirfs-Brock wrote:
>> ...
>> 
>>> Unfortunately, as it now stands  you have to use the implementation dependent message property value to actually identify specific exceptions.
>> 
>> *Error.prototype.name is normatively specified for all the built-in Error constructors.
> 
> Yes, but name doesn't discriminate the actual cause of the exception.  There is no normative way to distinguish a RangeError generated by 1.0.toPrecision(40) from a RangeError generated by (new Array(1.2))

I see -- but do we really want name variations for all of those? Where does the offending value go, if anywhere?


>>> I wonder if for new exception occurrences (in our specs.) we should specify unique implementation independent name property values. To do so, we would have to develop a meaningful fine-grained naming scheme.
>> 
>> This would fit in just Error, as JJB just suggested.
> 
> The difference is that instanceof can be used to detect RageError, TypeError, etc. instances

Right, instanceof. Kind of a flop, especially in a mutliple-globals embedding.

/be