Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 07:27:00 10/31/03
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On October 31, 2003 at 01:36:17, Johan de Koning wrote: >On October 30, 2003 at 09:44:48, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On October 29, 2003 at 13:39:03, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: > >>>It's like saying using 'goto' is ok in a programming environment. Where this is >>>certainly true, it should not be a policy to do so :) >> >>Eh? _every_ program you write has goto's. (aka jumps). They are not >>bad. In fact, they are _unavoidable_. > >OT1: They *are* avoidable. >Any finite algorithm that does not depend on mid-execution input (typically >time) can be written as 1 single expression. It would of course be huge and >run rather slowly without quantum computing. I don't know how you can possibly encode a loop into a complex expression, not knowing beforehand how many loop iterations will be needed... > >OT2: You *know* what he means. >There's no need to remove the quotes around 'goto' and change the subject, >just to contradict. I happen to be one of those that believes "gotos are _not_ a bad thing." Yes, it is possible to "hide" them within the semantics of a programming language. "break" comes to mind, as does "continue" (both in C of course.) But they _are_ gotos. They are implemented as jumps. The only advantage to using them is that they give you a hint as to where the goto is going, without your having to look for a label, when reading source. But to say that there are no gotos is simply wrong. It looks like a goto. It smells like a goto. It acts like a goto. It just isn't spelled "goto". > >BTW: this isn't personal. >In fact I'd advice *everyone* not to contradict Vincent. >That would halve the posting volume, i.e. raising the signal/noise by 6 dB. :-) > If noone contradicts him, the incredible amount of disinformation he produces will cause at least beginners to make bad mistakes. If they only believe 1% of the disinformation he produces, that is a significant number of errors that they will have to deal with. I think the onus is on everyone to try to stamp out such errors, when possible. IE that's what a university is all about. >... Johan
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