Why must LoadError be explicitly caught from require()

Ruby
1

Why do I explicitly have to catch LoadError as thrown by ‘require’?

The following code demonstrates my problem:

begin
require ‘not_existent’
rescue
print ‘I am never reached’
#rescue LoadError

print “But uncommenting these lines allows me to handle it”

end

I am running 1.8.4 on Windows.

2

On 8/30/06, Ben H. [email protected] wrote:

end

I am running 1.8.4 on Windows.

Because empty ‘rescue’ clause is the same as ‘rescue StandardError’,
and LoadError is not its subclass. See [1] for the hierarchy (or it’s
in PickAxe as well).

This is documented in rdoc [2]; but don’t worry, I overlooked it as well
:wink:

[1] Ruby | zenspider.com | by ryan davis
[2]
Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide
…If you write a rescue clause with no parameter list, the parameter
defaults to StandardError.

3

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, Ben H. wrote:

end

Because not throwing an exception would be bad.

What is your alternative?

Kirk H.

4

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, Ben H. wrote:

end

Oh, I am sorry. I just work from a nap (long night) and misinterpreted
that.

Because LoadError is not a subclass of StandardError. A plain rescue
catches StandardError and subclasses.

Kirk H.

5

Because LoadError is not a subclass of StandardError. A plain rescue
catches StandardError and subclasses.

Kirk H.

Thanks!