GOTO operator

Why not make it hard for users to use GOTO in the first place?

Develop some wacky construct that you have to use instead... that way, it
will scare off novice users, and expert programmers will HAVE to know what
they're doing and know that they really need it before they have to
implement it. It's along the lines of "make the most dangerous stuff the
hardest to do".

I'm not sure how, though... a huge language construct
(goto_this_line_please)? Use numbers instead of labels? Relative jumping?
Require extra messages? A weird symbolic construct? shrug

On another note, if a GOTO was added, the ability to go " goto foo$bar "
(dynamic goto) could add another gold star onto PHP's coolness.

Jevon

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank M. Kromann" frank@kromann.info
To: internals@lists.php.net
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] GOTO operator

We were all newbies at some point and most of us (not including myself)
learned how to handle the language, and so will the newbies of today, even
if GOTO is a part of the language. I don't see a need to make this an
ini-option. It is allready an option - use t or leave it alone.

• Frank

Hello,

I think we should add an INI option:

php_newbie true|false

;)

--
Best regards,
Jason mailto:jason@ionzoft.com

Thursday, July 29, 2004, 8:54:34 PM, you wrote:

AH> Sara Golemon wrote:

do {
.....code...
if (something) break;
...code....
} while (0);
...cleanup code...

Are you suggesting a hack is better than the real thing?

-Sara
AH> The "hack" is working. The manual says :
AH> " Advanced C users may be familiar with a different usage of the
do..while loop,
AH> to allow stopping execution in the middle of code blocks, by
encapsulating them
AH> with do..while (0), and using the break statement. The following
code fragment
AH> demonstrates this:" (a similar code follows)
AH> " Don't worry if you don't understand this right away or at all. You
can code scripts
AH> and even powerful scripts without using this 'feature'. "
AH> (the manual states that people can code powerful things without goto
hack).
AH> Sara, if you need to have the goto, you know how to implement it
with do..while.
AH> The average Joe may not need goto in some case but he will find that
it simplifies
AH> his job (but making code clumsy, something what he does not
realize).
AH> It is not because I don't like the power of goto, I would like not
to be given in the
AH> hands of the newbie.

AH> andrey