docs: update guidance on instanceof Exception checking

Author: kuhe

supplemental-docs/ERROR_HANDLING.md

@@ -11,28 +11,33 @@ The most common compilation error related to this SDK is the following:
       'A' is assignable to the constraint of type 'B', but 'B' could be instantiated with a different subtype of constraint 'C'.
 ```
 
-This is due to `node_modules` nesting and duplication when handling transitive dependencies that exist at multiple different versions within a single workspace. 
-Most commonly, this is caused by an application installing different versions of various SDK clients that all depend on `@smithy/types` or `@aws-sdk/types`, but at different versions.
+This is due to `node_modules` nesting and duplication when handling transitive dependencies that exist at multiple
+different versions within a single workspace.
+Most commonly, this is caused by an application installing different versions of various SDK clients that all depend on
+`@smithy/types` or `@aws-sdk/types`, but at different versions.
 
-To remedy this, install every `@aws-sdk/client-*` package at or around the same version. 
+To remedy this, install every `@aws-sdk/client-*` package at or around the same version.
 
 ```json
 {
   "name": "your-app",
   "dependencies": {
-    "@aws-sdk/client-s3": "<=3.600.0",
-    "@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb": "<=3.600.0",
-    "@aws-sdk/client-lambda": "<=3.600.0",
+    "@aws-sdk/client-s3": "<=3.800.0",
+    "@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb": "<=3.800.0",
+    "@aws-sdk/client-lambda": "<=3.800.0"
   }
 }
 ```
 
-The `<=` version prefix means to install the greatest version number below or at the given value. This is helpful because the `@aws-sdk/*` namespace
-only releases package version updates when there are changes, but the version number in the monorepo increments every day. Not every minor version number exists for each package.
+The `<=` version prefix means to install the greatest version number below or at the given value. This is helpful
+because the `@aws-sdk/*` namespace
+only releases package version updates when there are changes, but the version number in the monorepo increments every
+day. Not every minor version number exists for each package.
 
 ## Runtime errors not related to AWS service responses
 
-You may encounter SDK errors before a request is made. Since we provide a TypeScript API, we do not runtime typecheck every value, since that would increase application size. 
+You may encounter SDK errors before a request is made. Since we provide a TypeScript API, we do not runtime typecheck
+every value, since that would increase application size.
 
 ```ts
 // Example runtime error prior to request
@@ -43,36 +48,49 @@ const s3 = new S3();
 await s3.getObject({
   Bucket: "my-bucket",
   Key: 5 as any, // since this should be a string, the resulting error is thrown even prior to the request being sent.
-                 // TypeError: labelValue.split is not a function
+  // TypeError: labelValue.split is not a function
 });
 ```
 
-In such cases, refer to the API documentation or TypeScript declarations, or create an [issue report](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-js-v3/issues) for additional assistance. 
+In such cases, refer to the API documentation or TypeScript declarations, or create
+an [issue report](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-js-v3/issues) for additional assistance.
 
 ## Errors returned by AWS services
 
-Non-2xx responses from AWS services are surfaced to the user as thrown JavaScript `Error`s. 
+Non-2xx responses from AWS services are surfaced to the user as thrown JavaScript `Error`s.
+
+Since this SDK is generated from Smithy models, there is a conceptual notion of "unmodeled" and "modeled" errors.
 
-Since this SDK is generated from Smithy models, there is a conceptual notion of "unmodeled" and "modeled" errors. 
 - A modeled error or exception is an error that is declared by the service model. For example, at the bottom of the page
-https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/v3/latest/client/lambda/command/CreateFunctionCommand/, there is a list of named
-exceptions. These are the modeled exceptions for this Command or operation.
-- An unmodeled error is one that does not appear in the list, but is thrown at runtime by the service. Some errors are unmodeled
-because of incomplete modeling by the service, or because of routing layers, load balancers, security etc. that sit in front
-of the service. 
-
-Unmodeled errors are created as the default ServiceException class that exists for each AWS service, which the modeled errors also extend.
-In the AWS Lambda example, it is the one at the bottom that reads: 
+  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/v3/latest/client/lambda/command/CreateFunctionCommand/, there is a list
+  of named
+  exceptions. These are the modeled exceptions for this Command or operation.
+- An unmodeled error is one that does not appear in the list, but is thrown at runtime by the service. Some errors are
+  unmodeled
+  because of incomplete modeling by the service, or because of routing layers, load balancers, security etc. that sit in
+  front
+  of the service.
+
+Unmodeled errors are created as the default ServiceException class that exists for each AWS service, which the modeled
+errors also extend.
+In the AWS Lambda example, it is the one at the bottom that reads:
+
 ```
 LambdaServiceException	- Base exception class for all service exceptions from Lambda service.
 ```
 
 ### Handling service returned errors
 
 As seen in the example below, SDK error handling best-practices involve the following points:
-- cast the initial unknown error to the service base exception type to have type-access to the `$metadata` and `$response` fields.
+
+- cast the initial unknown error to the service base exception type to have type-access to the `$metadata` and
+  `$response` fields.
 - you can use switches to handle errors based on
-  - the error name. `instanceof` checks are not recommended for error handling due to the possibility of prototype mismatch caused by nesting or other forms of copying/duplication.
+  - the error name.
+  - error class `instanceof` operator calls.
+    - Although `instanceof` calls are in general somewhat dangerous across different packages due to NPM's module
+      nesting feature, the base `ServiceException` type in the AWS SDK has a `[Symbol.hasInstance]` method override, and
+      should work just as well as comparing by `name` property.
   - the `$metadata.httpStatusCode` value.
   - additional fields on the raw HTTP response object available at `error.$response`.
 
@@ -98,16 +116,19 @@ try {
     // checking the name of the error.
     switch (e.name) {
       case CodeStorageExceededException.name:
-        break;
       case TooManyRequestsException.name:
-        break;
       case LambdaServiceException.name:
       default:
-        break;
     }
 
     // checking the response status code.
     switch (e.$metadata.httpStatusCode) {
+      case 500:
+      case 404:
+      case 403:
+      case 400:
+      case 200:
+      default:
     }
 
     // checking additional fields of
@@ -124,14 +145,18 @@ try {
 
 ### Parsing errors arising from service responses
 
-An additional untyped field may be present, called `error.$responseBodyText`. This is only populated when the SDK fails to parse the error response, because
-it is in an unexpected format. For example, if the service model says the service data format is JSON, but the error body is plaintext. 
-This can happen if for example a front-end layer throttles the request but is unaware of the underlying service data format.
+An additional untyped field may be present, called `error.$responseBodyText`. This is only
+populated when the SDK fails to parse the error response, because it is in an unexpected format. For example, if the
+service model says the service data format is JSON, but the error body is plaintext.
+This can happen if for example a front-end layer throttles the request but is unaware of the underlying service data
+format.
 
 In such cases, the error message will include the hint
+
 ```
 Deserialization error: to see the raw response, inspect the hidden field {error}.$response on this object.
 ```
+
 It is not automatically logged to avoid accidental logging of sensitive data.
 
 To inspect it:
@@ -150,4 +175,3 @@ try {
   }
 }
 ```
-