Thanks, that's a good read. I realize that checked exceptions (I gather this is what they are called :)) are not a panacea, but it's better than nothing. Usually, this is how mistakes are made:

• programmer converts function ABC::xyz to use exceptions (throw them);
• then he modifies some function on a higher lever to handle the thrown exceptions;
• then he happily goes his way forgetting to check what else can call ABC::xyz

With this scenario, the checked exceptions would ID this problem on very first run.