Re: Re: limiting

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 10:26 PM, Ashley Sheridan <ash@ashleysheridan.co.uk> wrote: > On Wed, 2012-10-10 at 14:53 -0400, David McGlone wrote: > >> On Wednesday, October 10, 2012 07:36:00 PM Tim Streater wrote: >> > On 10 Oct 2012 at 19:17, David McGlone <david@dmcentral.net> wrote: >> > >> > >> > >> >> > >> >> > >> BTW - in any of your other computer languages didn't they utilize a >> > >> 'return' statement? PHP's is no different. >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > back in like '85, I learned Pascal that's the only language I learned >> > > and >> > > I >> don't recall if it used return. >> > >> > >> > Mmmm. There's the problem. Pascal doesn't *have* a return statement. In >> > Pascal, implicitly, you return when execution reaches the end of a >> > function. In fact the same is true of PHP and JavaScript, but in those >> > languages you can return early just by saying return. >> >> > IMO, this is a major limitation of Pascal. I use returns wherever I feel >> > like it - if I detect there's nothing more for the function to do, I >> > return. Purists object to this; they say you should enter a function at one >> > place and leave at one place. Well, that's a point of view. But more often >> > that not it just leads to convoluted code in order to achieve that. The one >> > time I *had* to use Pascal as that was the only option, I simply put a 999: >> > label at the end of the function and did goto 999 wherever I wanted to do a >> > return. Simples! >> >> goto was the thing that got on my nerves. Even to this day I hate that word >> with a passion. >> >> > > > I think most people do, all but BASIC purists! > Not really, goto can safe you a mess. In some situations it's much easier and cleaner to use something like goto cleanup; at each error case, instead of duplicating the cleanup code all over again (Closing sockets, or in languages like C, freeing memory). - Matijn