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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: and if you put this in your languag
Message-ID: <800010@ccvaxa>
Date: Thu, 27-Mar-86 00:03:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.800010
Posted: Thu Mar 27 00:03:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 01:10:41 EST
References: <1187@mmintl.UUCP>
Lines: 38
Nf-ID: #R:mmintl.UUCP:1187:ccvaxa:800010:000:1672
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!aglew    Mar 26 23:03:00 1986


Talking about the IFs that want to merge different paths back together,
g-rh@cca.UUCP writes:

>	I went on to outline a schematic suggestion for using flags and
>Jem wasn't happy with that.  Frankly, I'm not enthusiastic about flags
>either.  The real difficulty is that there is not good solution to the
>problem which can be roughly stated as follows: Given a net of if-then-else
>logic in which a functional block of code occurs more than once, how do
>you structure the code?  Some possible solutions are:
>
>(a)	Duplicate the block
>(b)	Replace the block by a procedure
>(c)	Replace the block by a macro
>(d)	Separate the logic structure and the executable structure,
>	using flags to control the execution
>(e)	Programming tricks based on language syntax

To these we can also add 
 (f) using GOTOs
if the paths of execution converge.

A side comment drawn from kolstad@convex.UUCP on net.cse

>Style:  I graded the first two assignments and inserted style
>suggestions -- the students were horrified that I would eliminate 7
>boolean variables and if statements in favor of a single
>forward-escaping goto.  They heard that no one did that!  Oh well.
>Most students used PASCAL; two or three used C.  Some did get better
>stylistically; some did not.

GOTOs are not EVIL; they are a tool that can be used in structured programming
just as any other tool. They are a tool that is frequently misused, 
sufficiently so that you should always think three times before using a GOTO,
(just like you should always think twice before using a gun, but sometimes
you may have to) but sometimes they are the best thing to do.

structured programming != GOTOless programming.