If you're going for reliability, exceptions are generally speaking more unpredic...

If you're going for reliability, exceptions are generally speaking more unpredictable than error codes at the function level (as they can propagate up, including out of libraries, where you may not know they'll originate from).

Also, setjmp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setjmp.h if you really really really like exceptions and want them in C.