Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!unixg.ubc.ca!buckland From: buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran Subject: Re: A Question of Style Message-ID: <1991May21.180713.1602@unixg.ubc.ca> Date: 21 May 91 18:07:13 GMT References: <12306@uwm.edu> <1991May21.140440.16964@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@unixg.ubc.ca (Usenet News Maintenance) Organization: University of B.C. Computing Services Lines: 21 Nntp-Posting-Host: swiss.ucs.ubc.ca In article <1991May21.140440.16964@m.cs.uiuc.edu> kornkven@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ed Kornkven) writes: >burley@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley) writes: >>In article <12306@uwm.edu> jgd@convex.csd.uwm.edu (John G Dobnick) writes: >> I have recently run into a FORTRAN compiler that exhibits, to my >> mind, an annoying trait. It complains voiciferously about statement >> numbers that are defined on statements, but are otherwise unreferenced. >> * Is this trait good or bad? Desirable or undesirable? >>It's bad. Undesirable. >I disagree. Any help I get from a compiler to help me catch mistakes >is appreciated and I would have to say that labels that are never >referenced are very likely due to an error ... There are a few people around (I'm not one of them, but I will defend, although not entirely to the death, their right to be themselves) who put labels on statements just as markers, with no intention of ever referencing them. The technique can serve as a way of locating all statements belonging to some class defined in the programmer's head, or as a way of delineating program segments, or as a labelling of statements you intend to reference one day, or as a labelling of drop-through statements for computed GOTOs. Et cetera.