Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-programming (128 mails)

[Anders Johansson <andjoh@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2003-04-15 at 04:15, Raúl Gutiérrez Segalés wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Today while I wwas coding I noted that I almost always use goto in this constructs:
> 
> while(condition)
> {
>  switch(some_var)
>  {
>   case 'y':
> 	    do_something();
> 	     break;

A break is a goto too, in a sense.

> 
>   case 'x':
> 	   goto end;

I don't think a goto used in this way is so terrible. It's still fairly
linear code. The big problem with "goto" is that if it's misused it can
lead to code that is extremely difficult to follow. For example goto:s
jumping out of or in to procedures.

In this particular case I don't see "goto end" any more difficult to
follow than "break".

> 	   break;

but if this is ever reached you should file a bug report with the
compiler people :)

>  }
> }
> 
> end:
> 
> Is this something not very advisable to do? Well at least that is what an author suggested..

Some people think "goto" should be completely banned from programming
(would this include JMP in assembly I wonder :) but I don't think so. It
should be used with extreme caution though. Take it from someone who has
had to work with maintenance of very old, very crufty and very huge
source files. If used properly and carefully, it can lead to code that
is even easier to read than the alternative. But if used improperly you
will want to kill yourself rather than have to read the code 15 years
later.