(A Look Back at) Go To Statement Considered Harmful.

The article presents a letter, originally published in 1968, assailing excessive use of the "go to" statement in computer programming. The author shares the view that a program's quality is inversely proportional to the number of "go to" statements it uses. "Go to" statements make programs messy and...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Communications of the ACM Vol. 51; no. 1; pp. 7 - 10
Autor principal: Dijkstra, Edsger W.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Association for Computing Machinery Jan2008
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The article presents a letter, originally published in 1968, assailing excessive use of the "go to" statement in computer programming. The author shares the view that a program's quality is inversely proportional to the number of "go to" statements it uses. "Go to" statements make programs messy and their use can be obviated by structured programming techniques. His opinion is informed both by experience and by the influence of persons such as Peter Landin, Christopher Strachey, and Heinz Zemanek. If he had his way the "go to" statement would be eliminated from all higher-level languages.