Hotspot registers structured exception handlers than handle both expected internally-used exceptions and unexpected exceptions. One flavor of unexpected exception are those thrown by external libraries called via Java code such as customer native libraries or Windows system libraries.
In a non-Java application, when such an unexpected event occurs and the exception is not handled by the application, Windows displays the "Application Error" message box with a detailed decription of the exception.
In Hotspot, when an unhandled exception is encountered, we do not unwind to the Windows handler, but instead issue our own error report and terminate the process. In some cases we may not provide as much error information as the Windows handler would have. It should be investigated whether this situation can be improved.
###@###.### 2005-2-09 15:19:43 GMT