Is there any resource (web or book) describing exception handling / error handling design patterns?
There is a lot of literature on how to write clean code, and there ar
Best approach is never to swallow any exceptions within your application code. Hookup a handler to unhandled exceptions in your applications when bootstrapping where you can show an error message and do some logging.
Some decent books i've read recommended this approach.
http://thibautvs.com/blog/?p=2238 is a good one where it's mentioned.
Description of using exceptions on .NET (but not only) in details: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/5b2yeyab(v=vs.100).aspx
When one should use them, how to write them, how to handle them correctly and so forth...
These patterns and best practices are often bound to a specific platform/language, so they are the first place to look for them.
As an example check the following links for java:
Going through such materials would give you a general idea to follow in exception handling mechanisms.
Also check other SO questions: