To be fair, Python doesn't throw a fatal error. It throws an Exception, which most people know to handle. The idiom is use a try/except block, but if you're clever you can usually avoid the need.
Scala borrows the option types from SML (or, at least, SML has them and is much older). I love SML for its strict semantics (if something passes through the type system it most likely works as expected), but sadly design really doesn't inform platform choice (case in point: C++ is still common. I don't hate it as much as some people do, but it can't be said to be particularly well designed).
Scala borrows the option types from SML (or, at least, SML has them and is much older). I love SML for its strict semantics (if something passes through the type system it most likely works as expected), but sadly design really doesn't inform platform choice (case in point: C++ is still common. I don't hate it as much as some people do, but it can't be said to be particularly well designed).