Re: No Go To's Forever!

["Michael P. Walsh" <mp_walsh@pacbell.net>]

Jeff Carter wrote:

> Richard D Riehle wrote:
> > When Dijkstra wrote his letter to the Communications of the ACM
> > in 1968, "Goto Considered Harmful," lots of people read the
> > title but not the letter.
>
> Quite true. For example, IIRC the letter was about program correctness
> proofs, and argued that the goto made such proofs much harder, not that
> the goto made human understanding or modification of software harder.
> Few of us perform correctness proofs, but we avoid the goto because it
> usually makes the software harder to understand and modify.
>
> I think the message that started this was a troll; I'm sure the author
> is please at the response generated.
>
> --
> Jeff Carter
> "English bed-wetting types."
> Monty Python & the Holy Grail

If you follow some of the more highly publicized comments of
Dijkstra over the years you will find he has labeled some excellent
advice with some pithy and over-simplified comments.

He also has made some comments about anthromorphizing
computer software designations that, in my opinion, are
just sheer old fogyism.

As far as trolls go, Dijkstra is something of an academic
troll.

Mike Walsh