Returning error codes usually implies that there is some class or enum in which all the error codes are defined. public enum Error { OK, INVALID, NO_SUCH, LOCKED, OUT_OF_RESOURCES, WAITING_FOR_EVENT; } Classes like this are a dependency magnet; many other classes must import and use them. Thus, when the Error enum changes, all those other classes need to be recompiled and redeployed.11 This puts a negative pressure on the Error class. Programmers don’t want to add new errors because then they have to rebuild and redeploy everything. So they
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