Re: GOTO considered necessary (reworked)

[bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)]

In article <33A0840B.1B41@sprintmail.com>,
John G. Volan <johnvolan@sprintmail.com> wrote:
>I agree with that philosophy, but I'd clarify it: Gotos may be used only
>as a _last_ resort, after every other possible structure has been
>exhaustively tried and still found to be less understandable, or
>maintainable, or efficient, or whatever, than the proposed goto
>solution. ...

This seems like a strange attitude to me.  I mean, why not say the same
thing about any other language feature, like if statements?  You
shouldn't use an if statement if there is another way of writing the
code that's more understandable, maintainable, or whatever.  The same
applies to goto.  Why does that make goto a "last resort"?

I certainly agree that there are lots more cases where if statements are
appropriate than cases where goto is appropriate.  But both can be
judged according to the same criteria -- as you said, "understandable,
or maintainable, or efficient, or whatever".

I would also agree, if you said, "As a rule of thumb, if you think you
want to use a goto, think twice."

>...  But this is a very stringent requirement, and I expect it
>will be very rare that a goto solution will beat out all other
>alternatives.

And everybody seems to agree with *that*.

By the way, for most programs, it seems far more important to worry
about how you structure the thing using packages, types, subprograms,
tasks, etc, than to worry about the control structures.  Usually the
control structures are so small (within a single subprogram), that even
if you *only* used goto for control flow (which I don't recommend, of
course!) you could still understand the program.

- Bob