>Because it is a new thing you have to learn. Why should I be forced to learn something new when an ON ERROR can be made to work just as well as it did back in the dBASE days?
>(or at least that's how I interpret reaction I've seen from some folks)

I agree that learning something new just because it's new is something we're forced to do much too often.

Yes, ON ERROR can be made to work as it did in the the DBASE days. but you might want to look at again at TRY.. CATCH.
It can do what what ON ERROR did and more and save you a lot of effort while doing it.