Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpcupt1!jacka
From: jacka@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Jack C. Armstrong)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The "evil" GOTO (Was: 25 Years of BASIC)
Message-ID: <6540009@hpcupt1.HP.COM>
Date: 9 May 89 16:59:18 GMT
References: <1814@ubu.warwick.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 13

In all of this GOTO/NOGOTO nonsense, no one seems to have mentioned just
WHY gotos are so ugly - it's not the goto statement that causes readability
problems - is the %&#!$! label!  When reading source written by others (or
myself, more than 5 minutes ago) the presense of a label tells me *somebody*,
*somewhere* does a goto to this location.  The question is - who? from where?
[N.B.  the break and return statements used in C have the same problem, with
the added 'charm' of no explicit label.  A goto by any other name.....]

Cross-listing directories help, but how long do they stay accurate?  In the
interest of free speech, I hate to see gotos totally censored, and as an old
Algol 60 hacker from the 60's I avoid them like the plague, but I'll still
stand up for your right to use them judiciously, where needed, but *please*
comment on its use!