When I worked at Yahoo, the policy was to not use C++ exceptions. We used integer return codes. We mostly followed your #1, in which constructors do no actual

When I worked at Yahoo, the policy was to not use C++ exceptions. We used integer return codes. We mostly followed your #1, in which constructors do no actual work. The Google coding guide, at least a few years ago, prohibited throwing C++ exceptions. So you are hardly alone in avoiding them.