crawforddavid2006

I used to hate the concept of loops but really they are not that hard to under stand
[PHP]
for(int index; i < 10; i++)
{
example code;
}
[/PHP]

the middle part is saying that it will perform the loop while something is true after it is not true it ends the loop. simple concept and a lot easier to understand then "Goto's"

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Æthereal Haze

You Have A Good Point There. : )
-Still Pouting About How The Sake Affected Him-..... Bad Sake.....
(Sake = Japanese Rice Wine , btw.)

Jessehk

The best argument against goto's that I have ever seen was a memory-game (like making matches of cards and then trying to remember where they were located) I made in TI-Basic on my graphing calculator.

:eek:

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Dr. Zoidberg: [ecstatic] I'm going to a movie... with FRIENDS!

Æthereal Haze

Lol!
Honestly, I Cannot Stand The Gotosite Command. I Used it three times, maybe throughout the entire length I have been learning.. (Prolly about 3 months ... LMFAO )

DaWei

I think Aethereal STILL doesn't know what's being discussed here. Trade that sake in on a book, and yeah, I know what sake is.

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Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers

Æthereal Haze

Guess I don't.. :-?
..............................
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............................. Oh well, Maybe I Will Figure It Out Sooner Or Later....
<-- Vb.. Mayhaps it was another language they were mentioning?

Darkhack

Don't worry about it. Quite honestly, I find it better that beginners never hear the words "goto" in their entire programming life. Unless your name is Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Dennis Richie, or Bjarne Stroustrup, you have no use messing with goto statements. Some people say you should NEVER use them, but their are times when it is acceptable to use them for the sake of performance. Unless you are developing an operating system kernel, a compiler, or advanced robotics/AI software, then I would recommend you pretend as if they never existed. And when I say "for the sake of performance" I don't mean using them instead of loops; I mean using them along side in a very, very scarce manner. There are probebly less than 100 programmers on the face of the planet whom I would trust with using goto statements. Also, while on the topic, for the sake of arguement, you could, in theory, use goto statements in such a way that they would mimic regular loops. Although that would be about as pointless as running a lawn mower through a parking lot.

Æthereal Haze

Hmmm............................... Yes, I See... I Do Very Well See Your Point........ I May Be A Newby To Forums, And May Not Understand What Is Going On Completely, ()---This Was Stated By Someone Earlier, So I Will Go Along With It, lol.....---() But I Sure Know That the Goto Command Can Be Quite Efficient. It All Depends On WHat You Use It For.

DaWei

Forgive me, but you don't know shit about the matter.

A goto is no more efficient that a brace, say, in C/C++. Typically, in a high level language, 'goto' is a statement that causes the path of execution to transfer to a point other than the instruction following in normal sequence. This is a common thing and one of the basic reasons our computers work. The destination of the goto is indicated by a label representing an instruction located somewhere else. The scope or range of this "jump" may be restricted, or it may not be. Because it is a unilateral movement, there's nothing that supports any kind of inference as to whether or not the movement is logical or rational, in terms of program flow.

If you dissect a "while" loop, you get something like this:

TOP:
Evaluate expression.
If expression is false goto END
Do some work here conditioned on the expression being true.
Evaluate some expression, if true goto TOP
Do some more work here
Evaluate some expression, if true goto END
Do some more work here
END

In C, that would look like:

while (expr)
{
Do some work
If some expr2 continue
More work
If some expr3 break
Even more work
}

Note that the 'while' (TOP) is a label who's location is represented by the opening brace.
END is a label representing the, well, end
Continue is a goto to TOP.
Break is a goto to END.

Note that VB would use a WHILE....WEND construct. Languages have various syntactical requirements of their own. PL/Z would use DO....OD.

Note also that the use of euphemistic things like braces, continue, and break, have a salubrious effect. They localize the operation. They are "in view", so to speak. One can see all the possible paths of instruction flow and the logical orderliness thereof. If the goto shoots off thousands of instructions one has no inkling of the rationale behind the construction of the program. Sometimes it goes off, comes back near, shoots off again, ad nauseum. This is referred to as 'spaghetti code.'

One might be tempted (and it might be defensible) to use a goto to exit a deep nest under fatal or near fatal error conditions. It's possible to exit otherwise, but can be a real pain in the rear. Thus the devil tempts us. Linus Torvald and his flunkys overused goto in the kernel. There is some defense, as it is a practical way to deal with exceptional failures, provided you know what you're doing and what needs to be unwound. The BSD kernel, compared to the Linux kernel, is a fine expression of how to do it better.

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Abstraction doesn't make it impossible to write bad code; it makes it possible to write superior code.
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master007

The GOTO statement (*hints while pointing to aethereal*) should only be used, as someone said earlier for breaking out of loops in the case of error catching. This is its best application.
It can also be used while testing your code.

p.s. I could drink a few jugs of warm sake right now, please stop mentioning its yummy/honourable name. .