Re: Exceptions: Are they GOTOs?

[Waltersr@usa.pipeline.com(Walter B. Hollman Sr.)]

If you will be the only person to maintain the code, use whatever you want;
but, using Goto can cause major problems for seasoned people trying to make
sense of your code. 
 
On Jul 17, 1996 22:49:11 in article <Re: Exceptions: Are they GOTOs?>,
'cosc19z5@Bayou.UH.EDU (Spasmo)' wrote: 
 
 
>Robert Dewar (dewar@cs.nyu.edu) wrote: 
>: Spasmo said 
> 
>: "Well, exceptions IMO do seem to be a bit unstructured in that control 
>: is immediately transferred to another block and everything is surpassed 
>: so that the possible paths of execution may not be obvious, however 
>: I think this is a very small price to pay for such a beautiful way of 
>: handling errors." 
> 
>: This is an odd definition of structure, but if this is your definition 
>: of structured, then I think your assumption that anything that is not 
>: structured is bad is wrong. I know you go on to say that exceptions are 
>: useful, but you should not accept even for a moment the orhodoxy that 
>: such transfers of control are somehow unstructured and therefore
inherently 
>: bad! I assume you have read Knuth's paper :-) 
> 
>Well to me structure is when you can logically look at your code and 
>see where control is heading in a simple top down fashion.  Maybe 
>that's not the "proper" definition of structure *shrug*. As for 
>anything unstructured being automatically bad, I wouldn't say 
>that, however if I can do something, then if feasible I'll 
>try to do it using the structured technique. 
> 
>I know that unstructured programming tends to have its applications 
>like in coding FAs straight from the diagram (easier to do with 
>gotos than anything else), it's just that in general I like to 
>avoid it if I can. 
> 
>Am I a structured programming bigot??? :) 
> 
> 
>-- 
>Spasmo 
>"Here's a present just for you 
>When you open it, you'll be through" 
>	"Letter Bomb" by the Circle Jerks 
> 
-- 
Walter B. Hollman Sr