Re: Simple question!
"Bo Persson" <bop@gmb.dk> wrote:
I can see that many attribute some inherently evil
properties to `goto' statement. Michael K. O'Neill
already posted good article in this thread. I'd second
his opinion. There is nothing wrong with `goto' per se.
All of us have seen horrible code without single `goto'.
This is not that `goto' (or any other language construct)
that makes code bad; it's quite the opposite: bad, stupid
coders produce filthy code (no matter what the language
the use for that). Any feature in a programming language
is just a tool. Use it wisely and you'll get beautiful
elegant code. I just can't get all these rumbles about
`goto'.
Because it is an inherently unstructured way to get from
one arbitary point in the program to another? :-)
First, it is not so arbitrary. It must be within the same
function. Second, the whole engineering thing is about
tradeoffs. Sometimes maintaining 100% pureness of whatever
concept has unacceptable cost. At that point smart thing to
do is to permit reasonable tradeoff. Not so smart thing to
do is to fight reality for sake of academic "correctness".
In my experience better engineer is that one who knows where
to draw the line rather who knows a lot of techniques
(though, it's also important).
When 99.9% of the uses are bad, the general advise to
students is: "Don't use it"!
I'm not so sure about the percentage. Just grep CRT sources
for `goto'. Also, I'm not comfortable with general advices
to students. Too often we can see fresh graduates with heads
full of such do's and dont's: C++ is bad because of pointers
and Java is good; all must be implemented in strict OOP way,
with getters and setters; never ever use goto, otherwise
you'll die; etc. etc..
Instead of stuffing students' heads with its own
idiosyncrasies, academy should encourage in them inquiring
spirit, readiness and willingness to think before applying
learned by heart methods.
`goto' statement is like litmus paper that instantly shows
two kinds of developers: those who immediately say "Don't!"
and those who say "Let's see what's the situation."