Goto (Posting On Python-List Prohibited)

[bartc]

On 29/12/2017 21:55, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Saturday, December 30, 2017 at 9:03:50 AM UTC+13, bartc wrote:
>> Why most newer, higher level languages don't, I don't know. Perhaps
>> because the people who design them want to make programming harder?
> 
> I don’t use gotos in C code. Why should it be “harder” in a higher-level language?
> 

Good for you.

Looking at 14 million lines of Linux kernel sources, which are in C, 
over 100,000 of them use 'goto'. About one every 120 lines.

My own low level sources use about one goto every 400 lines. It's hardly 
a lot. If one is used, it's because it was handy to use it, until such 
time as it can be replaced with proper logic. But such logic will 
usually be more convoluted.

BTW, looking at 220,000 lines of CPython sources, in C (an old 
distribution I had to hand), there are 2600 gotos, about one every 85 
lines. And those are the ones are directly visible as gotos, and not 
hidden behind macros.

I understand that on Linux, the CPython dispatcher makes use of label 
pointers, using 'goto *opcode_targets[*next_instr++]' to do a faster 
byte-code dispatch than using switch.

You I guess would have written it without that, and we'd all have to 
suffer 10% slower speed (or whatever) for your principles. That's 
assuming you could have got rid of the other 2600 gotos as well.

-- 
bartc