cjl@iuvax.UUCP (06/06/84)
Recently there is a lot of discussion about the use of GOTO in old
languages. Definitely it is not feasible to cut GOTOs completely in these
old languages because the control constructs are not rich enough.
Most new language designer today tends to eliminate the GOTO construct
completely by providing rich control constructs. Facing this new trend
, I would like to hear different opinions on the following two languages.
[Ada] In CACM Feb. 1984, Wichmann : "Is Ada too big ? A designer answers
the critics", GOTO was included in Ada only for the purpose of old
program conversion. Is it reasonable to forbid the use of GOTO in
all new Ada programs later given the very rich set of controls in Ada?
[Modula-2] GOTO is completely eliminated. The control constructs are those
of Pascal plus the LOOP-EXIT construct. Without exceptional handling
mechanism, will it cause inconvenience in professional programming ?
Do we need implementation extension to patch it ?
Chingmin Jim Lo
Dept. of Computer and Info. Science, IUPUI
(CSNET : cjl@Indiana@CSNet-Relay)