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From: Jan Prazak <janp9@gmx.net>
Subject: Re: exit from a procedure
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 18:10:32 -0100
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
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Date: 2002-07-15T18:10:32-01:00
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On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 11:14:26 -0100, Steve Sangwine wrote:


> The return (or RETURN) statement has been the absolutely standard way of
> returning from a procedure in many  languages (e.g. FORTRAN 66, BASIC)
> for decades. So why the ???? marks?

Because "return" is used in Ada for returning a value from a function, so
using the same keyword in a procedure looks strange. But there it's of
course without a value. But it's ok now, now I understand that "return"
in a procedure doesn't mean "return a value", but just "return" in the
meaning of "go back" to caller.
But I think it's clearer in Pascal, there it's "exit" (a loop exit is
called "quit" there).

> Maybe it would be a good idea to
> learn a bit about programming history .....

No, thanks... I don't have the time to learn dead languages, but it could
be interesting, indeed (but probably also frustrating, I have seen Towers
Of Hanoi in 10 different languages, some of the code had 10 lines
(Pascal, C...) and some even 100 lines).

Jan