From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: **
X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40,INVALID_DATE,
	MSGID_SHORT,REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no
	version=3.4.4
Xref: utzoo comp.software-eng:3010 comp.lang.ada:3367 comp.lang.c:26490 comp.lang.fortran:2947 comp.lang.lisp:2851 comp.lang.misc:4311 comp.lang.modula2:2133 comp.lang.pascal:3184 comp.lang.scheme:1127
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!hubcap!billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu
From: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 )
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.modula2,comp.lang.pascal,comp.lang.scheme
Subject: Re: problems/risks due to programming language, stories requested
Message-ID: <8218@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 2 Mar 90 22:15:22 GMT
References: <1004@micropen>
Sender: news@hubcap.clemson.edu
Reply-To: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

>From dave@micropen (David F. Carlson):
>> For what it's worth, my personal opinion is that C lends itself to 
>> precisely the kinds of errors noted above--when does break work and when 
>> doesn't it, and why in God's name do you need it in switch statements in 
>> the first place, etc.
> 
> A multi-case switch is very handy in many situations to reduce identical
> treatments for similar cases.  

   So is a multi-alternative case, as provided by Ada:

      case Foo is
         when 1 | 3 | 5 =>
            statement1;
         when 2 | 4 | 6 =>
            statement2;
         when others =>
            statement3;
      end case;

   The difference is that Ada takes care of exiting the case statement
   for you, whereas C requires (unsafely) that you use a break to avoid 
   being sucked into the code associated with subsequent cases.  


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu