this is a thoroughly debunked argument that Joel tried to make. Unlike goto, exceptions have stack traces, so when used correctly, their source and propagation are immediately obvious and traceable. An unreported exception in your buggy program is certainly no worse than an ignored error code.
The exception was catches somewhere It formed an unexpected, rare execution path that nobody could think of. It was not detectable by reading the local code. A missing error return would have been.
inappropriately catching and ignoring an exception is the same as ignoring an error return code, deeper down the call stack and not in the code you're looking at. the difference is, catching and ignoring the exception requires that it be actively done, whereas ignoring an error code is the default if no action is taken.
