--- a/libinterp/corefcn/error.cc	Sat Mar 23 13:54:13 2024 -0400
+++ b/libinterp/corefcn/error.cc	Mon Mar 25 00:43:53 2024 -0400
@@ -633,12 +633,15 @@
 void
 error_system::vpanic (const char *fmt, va_list args)
 {
-  // Is there any point in trying to write the panic message to the
-  // diary?
+  // Earlier versions of Octave printed a message directly to std::cerr
+  // and called abort.  That might be acceptable behavior for some
+  // programs but for an interactive application like Octave, aborting
+  // the entire program when an internal programming error has been
+  // detected seems unnecessary and certainly provides a much worse user
+  // experience than simply generating an ordinary error message and
+  // attempting to return to the command prompt.
 
-  std::cerr << "panic: " << format_message (fmt, args) << std::endl;
-
-  abort ();
+  ::verror (fmt, args);
 }
 
 void

--- a/libinterp/corefcn/panic.h	Sat Mar 23 13:54:13 2024 -0400
+++ b/libinterp/corefcn/panic.h	Mon Mar 25 00:43:53 2024 -0400
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@
 extern OCTINTERP_API void panic (const char *fmt, ...);
 
 // To allow the __FILE__ and __LINE__ macros to work as expected, the
-// panic_impossible, panic_if, panic_unless, error_impossible, error_if,
-// and error_unless symbols must be defined as macros.
+// panic_impossible, panic_if, and panic_unless symbols must be defined
+// as macros.
 
 #define panic_impossible()                                              \
   ::panic ("impossible state reached in file '%s' at line %d", __FILE__, __LINE__)