Return statements and their scope - guideline

[Maciej Sobczak <no.spam@no.spam.com>]

Hi,

I have found a coding guideline that allows return statements only in 
the outermost scope in the subprogram - which is supposed to avoid 
obscuring the control flow.

What is outermost scope in this context?

function F return Integer is
begin
   if Some_Condition then
      return 0;   -- (1)
   end if;
   -- ...
   declare
     X : Integer;
   begin
     -- ...
     return X;    -- (2)
   end;
   -- ...
   return 7;      -- (3)
end F;

Is (1) above in the outermost scope?
I understand that (2) is not (and is therefore discouraged) and (3) is 
definitely in the outermost scope, but (1) is not very obvious.

-- 
Maciej Sobczak : http://www.msobczak.com/
Programming    : http://www.msobczak.com/prog/