=begin
I'm not sure this is necessary. For example, sprintf() will raise an exception if in debug mode:
irb(main):001:0> $-w = true
=> true
irb(main):002:0> "foo" % 10
(irb):2: warning: too many arguments for format string
=> "foo"
irb(main):003:0> $DEBUG = true
=> true
irb(main):004:0> "foo" % 10
Exception ArgumentError' at (irb):4 - too many arguments for format string Exception ArgumentError' at /Users/apatterson/.local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/irb/workspace.rb:80 - too many arguments for format string
ArgumentError: too many arguments for format string
from (irb):4:in %' from (irb):4 from /Users/apatterson/.local/bin/irb:12:in '
irb(main):005:0>
Maybe we should just update code to raise an exception when in debug mode like sprintf() does.
=end
Sometimes when I use Kernel#warn in my code it is a message the user may not be able to do anything about, such as a deprecation message in library "a" that is used in library "b" that has not yet been updated, but the user wishes to use. Turning these into exceptions would break this use of warnings.
There are no priorities for warnings at present, so any code using warnings would need to be updated to take advantage of the feature, breaking backwards compatibility.
Existing uses of #warn could be set as "lowest priority" which makes the feature not very useful since only new code will opt in, and the exception will only be useful when ruby is run with -d, which is rare.
It wouldn't break backward compatibility, but it would take time for libraries to adjust to take the most advantage of it. And yet, any library with active development will likely adjust very quickly.
I would expect existing uses of warn to be set at "nominal priority" -- just below the error threshold. Although I imagine one could make the case that we should insert one priority layer between the two which would help make them a little more useful with libraries that haven't yet adjusted.