If you're like most developers you have a difficult relationship with error handling. You try to do \"enough of it\" to make your code work, but fundamentally errors make you uncomfortable and you want to avoid them as much as possible.

This is a logical reaction to errors when we first started programming - most errors were mistakes in our programs. But as you mature as a programmer errors are increasingly circumstances outside your control, and good error handling is essential to writing good code. It is the part of the iceberg under water.

This talk will teach you how to accept errors as something that is natural in any program and how to start thinking about error handling as part of \"what your program really is about\", rather than being a chore.

We will look at common classes of errors in domains like input validation, using libraries, and managing disk and network io operations, and discuss appropriate error handling strategies in each case. We will also discuss what kinds of errors we shouldn't try to handle at all, and why.

Finally, we will talk about how to approach testing error handling code and the pitfalls of overly clever error handling.