Topic 6. Debugging programs and handling errors: exceptions and std::expected

Goal: learn to reproduce and localize defects; handle exceptions; return typed errors and check the state after a failure

Lecture contents

1. Errors and the debugger — An error as a violation of expected behavior · Working with the Visual Studio debugger
2. assert and exceptions — assert, static_assert and context · An exception as a way to pass on a failure
3. noexcept, optional and expected — noexcept and safety guarantees · optional and expected
4. An error-handling strategy — Choosing how to report an error · Systematically searching for the cause of a defect · Designing failure messages
5. Checking guarantees after a failure — Checking a guarantee after a failure

Practice and review

• Practice — 3 worked examples with full code
• Tasks — 30 variants, each with tasks at three difficulty levels
• Summary — conclusions, self-check questions, and useful links