Can anyone explain C++ exception specifications to me?

Question

Can anyone explain Exception Specifications as used in C++ ?

• When are they used (I have rarely seen it used in code)
• What are the pros and cons (benefits/

Answer 1

They are generally regarded as a bad idea.

They say what a method will throw. The downside is that if that method throws anything else then your app terminates. So it's a guarantee but not in the same way that Java does it. And it adds the overhead of inspection.