Dijkstra should have titled his letter "Stupid programmers considered harmful". A good programmer will write good code no matter how liberal the language, and a bad programmer will write bad code no matter how restrictive the language.
Since someone asked, there's one situation where goto's are the best answer, even in fully structured languages: When you need to use a multitude of deeply and unevenly nested blocks to determine if some complex situation obtains, and there are several points in the nests at which the answer is determined. From each of those points you goto some code which does its thing and then exits, never trying to re-enter the nest. The alternative to goto in this one case is artificially contrived blocks that amount to structure for structure's sake. That's just an elaboratiuon of what $Bill said. Now can we end this religious discussion? Cliff > Behalf Of $Bill Luebkert > > My previous message was attached to the wrong posting. > > > > I doubt very much whether there is any occasion where gotos > are "most > > appropriate." Please provide an example. > > > > Check ot http://www.acm.org/classics/oct95/ "Go To Statement > > Considered Harmful" by Edsger W. Dijkstra > > In structured programming practice, a goto would be totally > inappropriate. > > But ... when you look at how a switch is implemented in > actuality, it's full of goto's. > > I guess the point is that you should leave the gotos to the > underlying generated compiler code and not use it yourself. > But if your language is lacking on suitable constructs, you > may be forced to use a goto just to save all the otherwise > unnecessary code to go structured. > > My suggestion - avoid if possible - else use cautiously and > infrequently. > > > On 7/13/05, Michael Erskine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >>On Wednesday 13 July 2005 13:30, Hugh Loebner wrote: > >> > >>>Why on earth are you using a goto statement? They are pernicious. > >> > >>On the contrary, a goto is often most appropriate in > expressing clear > >>program flow. _______________________________________________ Perl-Win32-Users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe: http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/mysubs
