Goto (Posting On Python-List Prohibited)

[breamoreboy at gmail.com]

On Sunday, December 31, 2017 at 3:02:41 PM UTC, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> bartc <bc at freeuk.com> writes:
> 
> > On 31/12/2017 12:41, Chris Angelico wrote:
> >> On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 11:33 PM, bartc <bc at freeuk.com> wrote:
> >>> On 30/12/2017 23:54, Chris Angelico wrote:
> >
> >>>> I've written code that uses dirty tricks like that to avoid
> >>>> duplication. It's at least as much of a problem as actual duplication
> >>>> is. Generally, the 'goto' solution results in subsequent programmers
> >>>> (such as my future selves) staring at the code for 30-60 seconds to
> >>>> figure out what it's doing. I don't like to do that to myself, much
> >>>> less to people I actually admire and respect.
> >>>
> >>> The problem is having to stare at the code for even longer to figure out the
> >>> even dirtier tricks you had to use to avoid gotos.
> >>
> >> Dirtier tricks like... named functions?
> >
> > I like to write clean and readable code. If I thought introducing
> > functions, whether local or not, as a way of avoiding goto was worth
> > doing, I would do so.
> 
> I think there's a problem with that.  Standard C does not have them, you
> said your language does not implement them properly and I think you are
> new(ish) to Python.  What language did you try them in?  It may be that
> it was overly complex in that language.  The idea is clean and simple.
> 
> > So in this case I disagree with dragging in named functions and
> > introducing an extra level of control flow just to avoid duplicating
> > half a dozen lines of code. I would just duplicate those lines (with a
> > comment that they have to match the other set so that they are
> > maintained in sync).
> 
> The suggestion was to use them to avoid gotos.  If duplicating is a good
> idea (and it's a hard line to draw) then we are not talking about the
> same cases.  Given the choice of "dragging in named functions" and
> dragging in named blocks and gotos, I would choose the functions every
> time.
> 
> <text removed>
> -- 
> Ben.

I would use functions every time as a modern compiler can inline them, something described here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline_expansion for the benefit of newbies.  Further I've never once in 17 years of using Python been tearing my hair out over the lack of goto as there are numerous examples of how to avoid them.  This thread is yet another storm in a thimble.

--
Kindest regards.

Mark Lawrence.