Is there any advantages to throw other thing that a std::exception( or derivatives types)

Question

Is there any advantages or uses cases to throw other thing that a std::exception( or a derivatives types).

For example throw 1; or throw \"error\";

Answer 1

Throwing things was in C++ a decade before std::exception or even std:: became an idea. This was not removed for backward compatibility reasons.

Those who chose not use std:: certainly like it that way, and throw other exceptions, likely derived from some base class supplied by a library. It's fine until you get several exception hierarchies to deal with in client code. So new code that does not fight against using std:: entirely (setting new_handler to avoid std::bad_alloc) is likely to re-fit its exception root classes to use std::exception as base.

Throwing non-class things like ints or pointers is often advised agaist, but in a light environment can make perfect sense -- in an small embedded project leaving the exceptions enabled but throwing only an enum sounds sensible.

In general, if the language allows to throw any copyable object why restrict it? While forcing to use a special library class would be not in spirit of C++ even if we had time travel.