Exceptions - not that new

Someone hand Michael Nascimento Santos a Smalltalk system, and show him how exceptions predate Java. Since he's just seeing that CheckedExceptions can be a problem, this could be enlightening:

I would like to point out, though, that it is very easy to speak about something that was conceived almost 10 years ago, after many years have passed and after using it and seeing others using it; it's a huge advantage the original creators couldn't have. James Gosling and all the other folks at Sun have made a great job designing Java and its API and, after nearly a decade, it is obvious there are things that could be better. I'll write more about other things - some far more critical than the way exceptions work - soon. Stay tuned!

The thing is, they weren't 'conceived' 10 years ago; they were badly copied....