distinguishing between failures and errors

<jbr>
> One could argue that throwing the wrong exception type is a
> failure and not an error, but since it's impossible to distinguish
> between simply throwing the wrong exception type and something
> going horribly wrong, it is easiest to treat them both as errors.
</jbr>

i think it depends on the exception.  if a method has advertised
an exception in its throws clause, a caller can anticipate that it
could happen, catch it, and call the outcome a failure.  any other
"unanticipated" exception would then be an error.  but in practice,
it probably doesn't matter whether the throwing of the wrong
"advertised" exception should signal failure or error.

i was trying to use the exception example as a starting point for
discussion about whether failure/error distinctions in junit are
meaningful to anyone.  my experience has been that they are not--
in either case, failure or error, you're led in the direction of a
solution.  what do you all think?

this, too, the failure/error distinction and whether it matters, may
be a good FAQ item too?

thanks in advance for the enlightenment.

cheers,
p