I really want to use exceptions in my code, because they are about everything that I've ever wanted in terms of handling exceptional occurrences. However, I was concerned about the overhead of exceptions, in either speed or space. However, I was reading and reading about exceptions, and I'm starting to accept that it is worthwhile to use them, and there aren't as many platforms that I support that don't have compilers that allow standard exceptions as there once was.
So, I'm looking for advice on it. For these platforms, can you tell me if standard exceptions are supported by any compilers and allow them to be disabled, and bear in mind, I don't support all of them:
Xbox
Xbox 360
PS2
PS3
PSP
Pandora
Dreamcast
Nintendo DS
Symbian OS, any versions after s60v3 (I hear the compilers finally support standard exceptions)
GCC on Windows and Unix derivatives
Visual Studio on Windows
Android (I hear the NDK does now)
iOS (mixing Objective-C with C++)
Additionally, for most platforms that support disabling exceptions through a compiler switch, what happens when a throw is encountered? Does it raise some sort of signal?
EDIT:
My most frequent use-case for exceptions is to indicate something that should not happen in a normal work load has happened (out of memory, data that goes into an internal structure from external code is invalid, attempting to use something that is in a valid but explicitly unusable state). In these cases, I would use a debugger to figure it out, but swallowing exceptions is against my style, so they would only occur in areas that must be fixed; a perfect run should never throw them, but still have the option of handling them just in case, like the extremely rare circumstance of expecting memory allocation to fail if you allocate based on input, and displaying an error asking for a different value, though nothrow new could just as easily be used.
For the sake of conversation, I use assertions for things that should never happen, and I use status codes for states that are expected to occur. It is very likely that trying to open a file will result in failing to find it, so returning a code indicating this is ideal. Ensuring that the pointer to my main structure isn't null should be left up to an assert; if it fails, then it is a logic error, that shouldn't have anything to do with what is passed from external code.
Further clarification, for how I use each:
1. Exceptions are for public interfaces that interact with external code. An exception signifies that something unexpected has happened, and it is the external code's fault.
2. Returning status codes is for both internal and external code. Status codes indicate that the expected behavior is for one of many events to occur, not all of them positive, though they are _recoverable_.
3. Using assertions is for internal code. The external code should not be able to cause an assertion.
If anyone has tips on how to improve this methodology, don't hesitate to contribute.