> And the fact that it's missing exceptions seems like a win because I much prefer dealing with errors when they occur.
This person doesn't seem to have much experience with error handling.
You shouldn't deal with errors the way you prefer it, you should deal with them the right way. Sometimes, it's where they occur, but very often, it's somewhere up the stack.
It seems odd to assume he has that opinion because of lack of experience, considering we're discussing a language developed by people like Rob Pike, who share his opinion on error handling and can hardly be described as unexperienced.
So I assume it has multiple returns? Some smart built in error class I could actually see that removing the need for exceptions, yes.
One new way I've found interesting in obj c is giving functions (an) error handling block argument(s). It nicely does what java unhandled exceptions warnings do: make the user aware of his actions.
This person doesn't seem to have much experience with error handling.
You shouldn't deal with errors the way you prefer it, you should deal with them the right way. Sometimes, it's where they occur, but very often, it's somewhere up the stack.
We learned this lesson in the 90's.