floweither

floweither is a programming concept that allows for conditional execution based on the success or failure of an operation, particularly in languages that utilize algebraic data types for error handling. It represents a value that can be either a successful result or an error. This pattern is often seen in functional programming paradigms.

The core idea behind floweither is to provide a structured way to manage potential errors without resorting to exceptions, which can be disruptive to program flow. Instead of throwing an error and halting execution, an operation returns a floweither value. This value can then be checked to determine if the operation succeeded and its result can be extracted, or if it failed and the error information can be accessed.

This approach encourages developers to explicitly handle potential failures at each step of a computation. This can lead to more robust and predictable code, as it forces consideration of error conditions rather than allowing them to be overlooked. Many modern programming languages and libraries have adopted similar constructs, sometimes referred to as "Result" types or "Either" types, to implement this pattern. The use of floweither, or similar concepts, promotes a more declarative style of programming where the intent of the code, including how errors are managed, is made clear.