Create misc.md

misc.md

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+---
+layout: presentation
+title: "Miscellaneous slides"
+---
+
+# Error handling
+
+The previous example is a simple way to handle errors.
+- we'll learn a better way when we cover *exceptions* later in the course
+
+--
+
+Some general rules about error handling:
+
+- If your code is making assumptions about its inputs, check them!
+  - for example, if your code assumes a parameter is positive, check and alert the user if this is not the case (and exit if appropriate)
+  - *this will save you time later on!*
+
+--
+
+- If you can reasonably handle the error, do so, but warn the user about it
+
+--
+
+- Most of the time, the error will be *fatal* (not recoverable), in which case your program should *not* proceed
+  - issue an informative message about the problem, and exit with a non-zero exit code
+
+--
+
+- try to detect errors as early as possible 
+  - for example: don't start a long batch of processing without first checking that you can create the output file
+