'goto" gone from computer languages or is it!

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Antonio Carlini" <a.carlini at ntlworld.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 5:50 PM
> John Hogerhuis wrote:
>> Agreed, but nor should anyone really care about provable
>> correctness, right? Engineering is about making things that
>> are practically useful, i.e. "good enough"-- we're not
>> designing stained glass windows for the Church of Reason,
>> we're simply making and maintaining tools to solve todays
>> problems more efficiently than if those tools were not
>> available.
>
> Certainly we should not immediately drop our coding sticks
> and not touch them again until we _know_ we have attained
> perfection. But I disagree strongly that we should not strive
> to reach that goal.
>
> If we had a mechanism now to create provably correct
> programs (that met specifications that we could be
> sure meant what we intended them to mean) - and
> further assuming that use of such a mechanism did
> not impose excessive cost or efficiency burdens etc, -
> then I think we would have to use them for all
> serious programs.
>
> Given the choice, I'd prefer the programs I use to
> work perfectly rather than imperfectly - and I'd prefer
> to spend the time I program at work creating correct
> code rather than being dragged back to fix yesterday's
> mistake.
>
> I'm more than willing to trade an occasional goto for that!
>
> Antonio

One big problem with goto comes from Fortran, with FORTRAN and early Basic's 
the goto uses line numbers.  Newer languages allow better labels:

      go to 4000

Doesn't tell you much.

C
C  Cleanup files and exit
C
     go to 4000

This at least tells you something.

Another problem is that many programmers don't understand the compilers they 
are using.  If you don't understand how the compiler handles stacks etc then 
we know where the problem is:  It is the Programmers fault for using a tool 
that they don't understand.

It is a problem with the Programmers not the tools.  It reminds me of 
stopping to help someone with a flat tire:

It was a young guy with a new car with his girlfriend.  He had a scissor 
jack that he had just shoved under the car and jacked it up.  He had it 
under the passenger side floor board and it punched through.  Someone else 
had stopped and lent him an old-fashioned bumper-jack.  It had ripped 
through the plastic bumper.

When I stopped he was angry and unwilling to accept any help, it was sad, 
thousands of dollars worth of damage over a flat tire.

It was not either of the jacks fault that they had done all the damage to 
the car, both jacks were able to do the job that they were designed for but 
the guy was not trained in how to use them but felt he was smart enough to 
know what he was doing.


Randy
www.s100-manuals.com