Structured Exception Handling

Structured Exception Handling is an extension for C/C++ (and other languages) that is supported on MicrosoftWindows platforms. It adds exception handling to C, allowing it to trap hardware exceptions such as general protection faults or division by zero. In standard C environments, SignalHandler?s are used to handle exceptions from the hardware or OperatingSystem.

In C/C++ on the Windows platform a __try block (note the underscores) is used to do this.

This technique is apparently subject to a SoftwarePatent held by Borland (who licenses the technology to MicroSoft). Work on the WINE emulator to support StructuredExceptionHandling in GCC was halted in May 2005 due to this patent.