But the issue about the multiple return types is not pointless at all: Optional types, and pair types, were added to the language way later than checked exceptions. We didn't even have actual generics back then! So the checked exceptions really were a way to get around lacking alternative error management features.
If backwards compatibility wasn't a concern, checked exceptions would probably go away in a version or two, and we'd have some kind of monadic error type instead. But Java takes this seriously, and the standard library itself has methods with checked exceptions, so the timeline to go from checked exceptions to something else is very long.
If backwards compatibility wasn't a concern, checked exceptions would probably go away in a version or two, and we'd have some kind of monadic error type instead. But Java takes this seriously, and the standard library itself has methods with checked exceptions, so the timeline to go from checked exceptions to something else is very long.