Error handling can be implemented implicitly, via exceptions that propagate silently and are not visible in a function's signature, or explicitly, via an algebraic result type that encodes success and failure as two distinct tracks a caller must resolve (railroad-oriented programming). Rust's type system enforces the explicit approach at compile time through the `Result<T, E>` type (for fallible operations) and the `Option<T>` type (for values that may be absent), so callers cannot silently ignore a possible failure the way they can with unchecked exceptions. This belongs to the theory of error handling and type-safety design in programming language semantics, contrasting statically-checked, explicit failure representation against dynamic, implicit exception propagation.
Error handling can be implemented implicitly, via exceptions that propagate silently and are not visible in a function's signature, or explicitly, via an algebraic result type that encodes success an…