🚀 go-pugleaf

[shouldn't this be in comp.lang.c[.moderated]?]

In article <4258ak$cj7@news0.rain.rg.net>, Paul Long  <plong@perf.com> wrote:
>I mean the readability problem that Steve McConnell describes in _Code
>Complete_: "It's harder to understand a routine if, reading it at the bottom,
>you're unaware of the possibility that it returned somewhere above." IOW, the
>logic within a routine no longer flows completely from top to bottom.

That's not a readability problem.  Consider:
list *
long_list_function(list *lp) {
	if (!lp)
		return NULL;
	...
}

is better, by far, than skipping that return and littering the function
with redundant tests for lp.  It's also better than an if (lp) {} around
the whole function; why waste an indentation level that communicates
nothing?

My respect for _Code Complete_ has just dropped a notch.

>Maybe you misunderstood me. I am _not_ proposing that gotos are a reasonable
>alternative to multiple return statements. Both are bad and avoidable.

I don't think either is bad.  Either can be used badly; so can addition.

>I agree. Since I still have the book open, here's another quote from _Code
>Complete_: "Even if gotos aren't confusing when used carefully, once gotos are
>introduced, they spread through the code like termites through a rotting
>house.  If any gotos are allowed, the bad creep in with the good, so it's
>better not to allow any of them."

Wow.  Slippery-slope strikes again!

I don't buy it.  Gotos don't creep.  They don't infest.  They're a *tool*.
Now, setjmp() longjmp() pairs creep and infest - but gotos are *by definition*
restricted to one function in C.  Pretty limited creeping.

I dislike "coding standards" based on the assumption that I'm a moron without
the ability to judge, case-by-case, whether or not something is appropriate.

>We disagree.

Well, I disagree with you!  Tag!

-s
-- 
Peter Seebach - seebs@solon.com || seebs@intran.xerox.com --
C/Unix proto-wizard -- C/Unix questions? Send mail for help.  No, really!
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