The Absurdity of Error Handling: Finding a Purpose for Errors in Safety-Critical SYCL
Talkat CppCon 2023 · on Thursday, 2023-10-05· at 09:35· Maple 3/4/5, 6700 North Gaylord Rockies Boulevard·
summary
Argues that the real problem is disagreement about what safety means and that useful error handling requires knowing the exact failure, its recoverability, and its worst-case timing. Uses a concrete vector out‑of‑bounds case to show exceptions give security but break deterministic behavior; proposes restartable components or power‑cycleable units as the practical unit of mitigation. Reports SYCL SC is exploring incremental, API‑level changes rather than a revolutionary solution.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:45Talk overview
- 1:27Safety perspectives
- 3:34Abstractions' complexities
- 5:21Language vs safety
- 8:33Defining errors
- 9:56Out-of-bounds case study
- 13:48Error handling paradox
- 15:12Safety-critical APIs
- 17:02Error handling beyond safety
- 19:09When error handling makes sense
- 21:18Mitigation units
- 22:22SYCL API implications
- 23:46Practical advice for application developers
- 24:50Advice for library devs
- 26:17C++ design challenges
- 28:00Summary
- 29:25Q&A
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