Do you still trap memory allocation failures in your C++ program [closed]

Question

I am writing some guidelines for the company and I need to answer some tough questions. This one is quite difficult.

The solution can be:

1. Not track at all. Make sure that objects are allocated using new which will throws an exception when allocation failed. The application will die, and it is not a big deal. PRO - code usually can be very clean.

2. Track memory allocation failures and reports it accordingly, just like any errors (such as file access error).

Honestly, I have to write much more code if we go with option 2. For example, many std::tring operations involve memory allocation. Such as

std::string str1, str2; str1 = str2; str += str2;

Our software will always run major platforms, not embedded. Somehow I think that option 1 is the way to go. What's your opinion?

Answer 1

I do trap memory allocations, but only occasionally.

In particular, I will occasionally trap a memory allocation where:

• I know the amount of memory being allocated is very large
• There is something I can do about it if the allocation fails (ie: gracefully handle the condition with a notice to the user, etc)

That being said, those two things are pretty rare - usually I just end up letting the program die from the exception.