[Feature]: add error handling for initialization errors

[ChristineStawitz-NOAA]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Right now if you don't set some of the R fields properly the model will segfault, and it would be better for the user to get an error describing why the model is failing.

Describe the solution you would like.

right now the program segfaults if things are not properly set, it would be better to provide informative error messages

Describe alternatives you have considered

current approach

Statistical validity, if applicable

No response

Describe if this is needed for a management application

No response

Additional context

No response

Code of Conduct

• [X] I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[k-doering-NOAA]

@ChristineStawitz-NOAA do you think the error handling should take place on the R side or the C++ side? If it is the R side, it may be possible to check when creating the S4 objects (which is part of the S4 framework).

[Andrea-Havron-NOAA]

Currently FIMS checks for missing modules on the C++ side (example here). This error checking step in C++ is invoked when calling MakeADFun(). Any segfault error (e.g. missing module, dimension mismatch, etc.) would crash the R session. Segfault related errors will require error handling on the R side to avoid R session crashes.

[Andrea-Havron-NOAA]

Related to Issue #314

[msupernaw]

The easiest place to catch model configuration errors would be in the Information::CreateModel method.

On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 6:01 PM Andrea-Havron-NOAA @.***> wrote:

Related to Issue #314 https://github.com/NOAA-FIMS/FIMS/issues/314

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[Andrea-Havron-NOAA]

In addition to catching model configuration errors with CreateModel, we will want additional error checks on the R side to catch potential segfaults before MakeADFun is called.

[ChristineStawitz-NOAA]

Tagging as this is coming up in a lot of case studies, particularly the need to validate dimensions of input parameters