On 02.11.24 13:59, Didier Kryn wrote:

> Le 02/11/2024 à 00:39, Bob Proulx via Dng a écrit :

> >    I have always

> > considered goto to be a keyword of the damned but this causes me to

> > stop and think and consider that maybe I have been too harsh when it

> > is used appropriately.

>

>     There has been many critics about goto, up to the point to recommend

> never using it. It was obviously due to widespread abuse. I have seen some

> bad programmers horribly abuse of GOTO in FORTRAN. Some people then

> recommended even to forbid its usage. But it is like everything, to use

> moderately, when apropriate. A simple goto may avoid a horrible nesting of

> loops.

ITUT SDL (Specification & Description Language), much used for

telecommunications and protocol stack design and implementation includes

a JOIN operation. It allows a transition (the sequence of actions

following an input event match at a state) to go to a labelled juncture

in any other transition in the same state machine, rather than go

directly to a new state or return to the scheduler without change of

state. Given its widespread use, due to its great utility, it was

probably wise not to spell JOIN as GOTO, lest the gullible regurgitate

the aversion-therapy dogma used to protect programming novitiates from

themselves.

Where another state already has a transition implementing all the

actions (such as a thorough two-party Call cleardown sequence) which we

need at the state we're coding, it would be reprehensible to create a

duplicate, as that significantly impairs maintainability. The shared

transition cannot be moved to a new state for shared use, without adding

a superfluous event to activate a superfluous transition to reach that

superfluous state. The JOINed transition is a nifty go to for uniform

cleardown from any state, for reliable system performance, with a

maintenance minimum. I.e. very good design, in this circumstance.

But each to his own, I figure.

--

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but

coaxed down-stairs a step at a time.

- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar