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From: mfinney@lynchburg.net
Subject: Re: Software landmines (loops)
Date: 1998/09/03
Message-ID: <oUsH1.484$qj1.1164857@newsread.com>#1/1
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References: <slrn6sopmg.4fg.jdege@jdege.visi.com> <35f51e53.48044143@
 <m3af4mq7f4 <6sjms6$7c4$1@hirame.wwa.com> <EynyFt.Mwz@ecf.toronto.edu>
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Date: 1998-09-03T00:00:00+00:00
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In <EynyFt.Mwz@ecf.toronto.edu>, doylep@ecf.toronto.edu (Patrick Doyle) writes:

>In article <6sjms6$7c4$1@hirame.wwa.com>,
>Robert Martin <rmartin@oma.com> wrote:

>>1. They are indeterminate.  When you throw an exception, you have no idea
>>where control will wind up.  It is not simply an exit from the current
>>scope, or even from the current function.

>By this logic, polymorphism is indeterminate too.  When you call a
>polymorphic function, you have no idea where control will
>wind up.  This is a Good Thing.  It's what makes polymorphism
>powerful: the fact that you're giving someone else some control
>over the situation makes your code flexible.

>The same holds for exceptions.

>Having said that, I just used an exception for the first time
>yesterday.  I (almost) never use them, and I don't even know
>why.  But the nondeterminism isn't it.

Everybody in favor of non-deterministic algorithms (and control
structures) raise your hand!  They are not common, but sometimes
they are just the ticket.  It just requires a different way of thinking
to use them.  Don't knock non-determinism -- even Dijkstra's guarded
conditions are non-deterministic.  Knock instead an inappropriate
use of non-determinism.


Michael Lee Finney