HP3000-L Archives

March 2004, Week 2

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Subject:
Re: GO TO
From:
Patrick McMahon <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Patrick McMahon <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 12 Mar 2004 08:51:22 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
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text/plain (48 lines) 
I can generally handle GO TO what I can't handle is "ALTER .... TO PROCEED
TO ...." that is down right deceiving especially when it is buried in an
obscure paragraph.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Clogg [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 8:04 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: [HP3000-L] GO TO
>
> Kent wrote:
> >I was told in 1986 when I worked at Boeing, never to use "GO TO"'s.
>
> Now this is a good posting to liven up the list!  Plenty to debate about,
> but since it doesn't involve politics or religion, there will hopefully be
> no name-calling, etc.
>
> OK, now let me weigh in on the "GO TO" question.  While I agree that GO
> TOs are generally bad, I have seen some truly awful code written in the
> name of avoiding them.  The problem, it seems, is that some people try to
> boil down an entire approach to programming into a simple rule such as
> "Don't use GOTOs".  Such a simplistic approach can cause a programmer to
> lose sight of the reasons for the rule, namely to write code that is easy
> to follow and is logically organized.  If the programmer writes code that
> is MORE confusing just to avoid a GOTO, then he has failed to achieve the
> purpose of the rule.
>
> In one rather silly example I saw, a program PERFORMed a paragraph that
> contained a STOP RUN.  The phrase "a rose by any other name..." comes to
> mind -- this is clearly a GO TO disguised as a PERFORM.  That is not to
> say that a GOTO would be a bad thing in this instance; in fact, a GOTO
> would be clearer.  Obviously the programmer did not understand the reason
> for avoiding GO TO's.  In that same vein, I believe the example Kent gave
> of using GO TO's to exit a paragraph is a perfectly valid use of GOTO.
> After all, there is nothing about a GOTO that is bad from a performance
> standpoint.
>
> Regards,
> John Clogg
>
> -
>
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