Re: Why C++ is successful

[dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

Patrick said

  Well, the fact that you had to add that hint suggests something about
  your code's clarity...  :-)

  How about this:

  from
          J := 1
  until
          J >= N
  loop
          if D(J) > D(J+1) then
                  Swap (D(J), D(J+1));
                  J := 1;
          else
                  J := J + 1;
          end
  end

First the hint is simply because, although the algorithmic flow of the
original is completely clear, it is my experience that when people
contort to remove the gotos, they often end up with a non-equivalent
algorithm. That says nothing about the clarity of the original, merely
the difficulty of removing the goto.

The above code is correct, but for my taste not clearer. I don't like
having a loop which at the outside looks like a perfectly normal
J from 1 .. N - 1 loop, but is not.

Here the unusual structure of this loop is buried in an inner assignment,
rather than being evident at the top level in my presentation with a goto.
But certainly people differ in tastes and perhaps some will prefer the
above, but please prefer it because it is clearer to you, NOT, as is the
case for so many programmers, simply because the goto is eliminated.

There is nothing inherently unclear about a goto, that's the important
thing. On the contrary, the semantics of a goto, intepreted in the normal
operational manner at which most programmers interpret semantics, is 
about as simple as it could be. Yes, of course it is possible to abuse
the goto and write disgusting code, but the same can be said about
any feature in any language.