Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Edsger Wybe Dijkstra: 1930-2002

Author: Tony Werten

Date: 01:30:58 08/11/02

Go up one level in this thread


On August 10, 2002 at 16:37:46, Alessandro Damiani wrote:

>On August 10, 2002 at 07:06:55, Tony Werten wrote:
>
>>On August 10, 2002 at 05:59:08, Alessandro Damiani wrote:
>>
>>>On August 10, 2002 at 03:43:49, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>
>>>>On August 10, 2002 at 03:06:36, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On August 09, 2002 at 18:52:56, GuyHaworth wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Yes, a sad loss. A remarkable man.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>"GOTO considered harmful" and "Co-operating Sequential Processes" had a major
>>>>>>effect on my thinking in the '70s.
>>>>>
>>>>>Together with Jackson he was one of the pioneers of "Modular Programming", in
>>>>>the late 70's I had to learn his stuff. The one thing he could not convince me
>>>>>is the use of the "goto" instruction, I still use it. The use of the "goto"
>>>>>instruction is considered as the no.1 main sin in programming.
>>>>
>>>>Not anymore I think. Break and continue are considered correct instructions
>>>>while basicly they are a goto.
>>>>
>>>
>>>What is the postcondition of a "break"? ;)
>>
>>
>>repeat
>>
>>   some code;
>>
>>   // break or continue
>>
>>   more code;
>>
>>until (x>5); // continue will make you jump here, so skip more code is skipped
>>
>>
>>// break will make you jump here
>>
>>Tony
>>
>
>I know "break" and "continue". The problem with them is that their postcondition
>does not depend on the statement itself, since it is just a jump. If we look at
>a Hoare triplet for the break-statement we cannot determine the postcondition
>for "break".

Yes, you seem to be right. The problem seems to be that break and continue are
regarded as exceptions wich is quite silly. Break is just a goto, continue can
be seen as a goto or as a big if clause including everything up to the until
statement.

Tony


>
>Alessandro



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.