Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
It did, however, spark a prominent debate among computer scientists, educators, language designers and application programmers that saw a slow but steady shift away from the formerly ubiquitous use of the GOTO. Probably the most famous criticism of GOTO is a 1968 letter by Edsger Dijkstra called "Go-to statement considered harmful". [3]
The original title of the letter, as submitted to CACM, was "A Case Against the Goto Statement", but CACM editor Niklaus Wirth changed the title to "Goto Statement Considered Harmful". [6] Regarding this new title, Donald Knuth quipped that "Dr. Goto cheerfully complained that he was always being eliminated." [7]
The goto statement (a combination of the English words go and to, and pronounced accordingly) is the most basic form of unconditional transfer of control. Although the keyword may either be in upper or lower case depending on the language, it is usually written as:
If the algorithm requires a conditional branch, the GOTO (or GOSUB subroutine call) is preceded by an IF-THEN statement specifying the condition(s). All high level languages support algorithms that can re-use code as a loop , a control structure that repeats a sequence of instructions until some condition is satisfied that causes the loop to ...
A for statement also terminates when a break, goto, or return statement within the statement body is executed.[Wells] Other languages may have similar statements or otherwise provide means to alter the for-loop progress; for example in Fortran 95:
AOL latest headlines, news articles on business, entertainment, health and world events.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
One day, you may notice some charges you don’t recognize on your credit card billing statement, so you call your card issuer and file a fraud report. You get a replacement card with a new number ...