make error work before Base

base/base.jl

@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ type AssertionError <: Exception
     AssertionError() = new("")
     AssertionError(msg) = new(msg)
 end
+isfatal(::AssertionError) = true
 
 #Generic wrapping of arbitrary exceptions
 #Subtypes should put the exception in an 'error' field

base/error.jl

@@ -18,8 +18,15 @@
 
 ## native julia error handling ##
 
-error(s::AbstractString) = throw(Main.Base.ErrorException(s))
-error(s...) = throw(Main.Base.ErrorException(Main.Base.string(s...)))
+if isdefined(Main, :Base)
+    error(s::AbstractString) = throw(ErrorException(s))
+    error(s...) = error(string(s...))
+else
+    type CoreErrorException <: Exception
+        msg
+    end
+    error(s...) = throw(CoreErrorException(s))
+end
 
 rethrow() = ccall(:jl_rethrow, Bottom, ())
 rethrow(e) = ccall(:jl_rethrow_other, Bottom, (Any,), e)
@@ -52,18 +59,16 @@ end
 
 ## fatal errors ##
 
-isfatal(error) = false
-isfatal(::StackOverflowError) = true
+isfatal(::Exception) = false
 isfatal(::OutOfMemoryError) = true
+isfatal(::StackOverflowError) = true
+isfatal(::SegmentationFault) = true
+isfatal(::UndefRefError) = true
 isfatal(::UndefVarError) = true
 
 enable_catch_fatal() = ccall(:jl_enable_catch_fatal, Void, ())
 disable_catch_fatal() = ccall(:jl_disable_catch_fatal, Void, ())
-if isdefined(Main, :Base)
 rethrow_if_fatal(error) = isfatal(error) && ccall(:jl_rethrow_fatal, Void, ())
-else
-rethrow_if_fatal(error) = nothing
-end
 
 
 """