Spacing conventions

[Paul Moore]

On 28 September 2017 at 06:56, Bill <BILL_NOSPAM at whoknows.net> wrote:
> Steve D'Aprano wrote:
>>
>>
>> Similarly for break and continue.
>>
>>> I can still see their
>>> use  causing potential trouble in (really-long) real-world code.
>>
>> How so?
>>
>> Besides, if your code is "really long", you probably should factorise it
>> into
>> smaller, meaningful chunks.
>>
>
> I worked in maintenance programming.  You got the hand you were dealt!  And
> you weren't allowed to "improve" the code unless the customer contracted you
> to do so.  I maintained for-loops (containing for-loops)... hundreds of
> lines long.   Would you be searching for break or
> continue?  : )

I also work in maintenance. Agreed 100% that the sort of code you deal
with is a nightmare. But the problem with that code is *not*
break/continue, but the lack of structure and the fact that the code
isn't properly broken into meaningful subunits.

I'd rather not search for break/continue in such code, sure, but
that's missing the point entirely. "Don't use break/continue in
appallingly bad code" doesn't generalise to "don't use
break/continue", but rather to "don't write appallingly bad code" :-)

Paul