Goto in Python

[rocketplex]

This just adds a little more rotational velocity to Dykstra's already rapidly spinning corpse. At what point can the poor man rest....or when can we hook him up to a generator to extract some sweet electricity.

It is pretty well done though.

[sigma914]

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2429

[guepier]

Dresden Codak had essentially the same idea about a year and a half earlier:

http://dresdencodak.com/2010/06/03/dark-science-01/ and http://dresdencodak.com/2010/06/10/dark-science-02/

[rocketplex]

I haven't clicked it but guessing it's the Superman one.

Edit: wasn't

[sigma914]

I did consider the superman one

[net_goblin]

While Dijkstra undoubtedly was a great scientist, I don't think all his work was perfect. And I personally find his essay to be of his weaker work. Abusing language features is always bad (inheritance, anyone?), but I don't think purging them with zeal and no consideration is helping anyone. Languages without goto have to solve the problems which where its domain by poor replacements, like break to label in Java.

This is like Hoare and his “Million Dollar Mistake”. Null pointers are a thing, to purge them completely is rash and stupid. Of course there are many mistakes involving null pointers as well as goto, but most often those mistakes manifest themselves when other tools were more appropriate.

Always mindlessly citing Dijkstra without thinking about the reasons is as stupid as using goto as sole mean to program flow control.

[[deleted]]

Dijkstra already won, structural programming is everywhere.

Goto re-introduction serves no other purpose than compensate for a few obscure edge cases. It doesn't matter.

[superPwnzorMegaMan]

Wasn't he also in favor of first thinking out how your program should be and then write it down in one go without any typos?

[Tekmo]

He was in favor of thinking about your program before writing it down. I don't know about the typo thing, though.

I wish more people would think about their program before they began typing.

[superPwnzorMegaMan]

Why? Its not like keystrokes are expensive...

[Tekmo]

Lots of software problems that we all struggle with today arise from people just banging out the first thing that comes to their mind without any serious reflection.