The new GOTO Statement?

[PIEBALDconsult]

Me and the boys will be playing all night.

[Lost User]

sisnaz wrote:

What's the difference between using embedded functions and a goto statement? It seems to me it's no different and just as difficult to follow and maintain. I'd be curious on other opinions of this practice.

:doh: A GoTo breaks the flow where as a embedded function becomes part of the flow. Here is some psuedo code to show you the difference

bool flag = GetFlag() //Embedded but the point is made elsewhere

if flag
GOTO: SomeLabel

EmbeddedMethod();

SomeOtherEmbeddedMethod();

OK, so this code will ONLY run the EmbeddedMethod if the flag is false. One would think in that case it will also run the SomeOtherEmbeddedMethod and here is lies the evil of GoTo. What if the EmbeddedMehtod is defined in the same manner using a GoTo? i.e.

bool flag = GetSomeOtherFlag()
if flag
GoTo: SomeOtherLabel

Now as a user when I am looking at the first code snippet I have to account for that extra GoTo that could happen. Maybe I must run some logic if the EmbeddedMethod runs. How do I ensure it in the most simple manner? Solution, Dont't use GoTo!

Computers have been intelligent for a long time now. It just so happens that the program writers are about as effective as a room full of monkeys trying to crank out a copy of Hamlet.

[Lost User]

Bad Software languages breed bad software engineers....

Computers have been intelligent for a long time now. It just so happens that the program writers are about as effective as a room full of monkeys trying to crank out a copy of Hamlet.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Hear hear!

[Bassam Abdul Baki]

You're abusing him and his thread. ;P

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[Bassam Abdul Baki]

I fell in love with Goto when I first learned it. What can I say, I was able to follow it rationally. :)

Web - BM - RSS - Math - LinkedIn

[lewax00]

var is great for foreach loops when you have long types like KeyValuePairs with a generic type for the value. I don't use it often outside that.

[lewax00]

I don't know if the complexity increases significantly, but people well versed in imperative languages, like the majority of C#, may not be familiar with functional programming constructs, making it a little tougher to figure out just from lack of exposure. And they are harder to debug, can't seem to put breakpoints inside of them. But I probably abuse them a little, some sections of my code look more like LISP than a C-family language...especially when I realized I could use them to make wrappers out of certain loops and similar constructs that were being used over and over again in my code...

[jschell]

sisnaz wrote:

What's the difference between using embedded functions and a goto statement?

Because one is cool and the other isn't. It is of course related to the difference between understanding the syntax of a language and being able to write syntax that is maintainable.

[ekolis]

harold aptroot wrote:

You can abuse switch in atrocious ways in C and C++ (case goes pretty much anywhere, it doesn't even look like valid syntax but it is)

Are you saying that you can have a case statement without an enclosing switch? :wtf: What does THAT look like, and what would one use it for?

[sisnaz]

YES! I completely agree. I have a team member that declares EVERYTHING as var. He says it's because it makes it loosely coupled and also C Sharpner tells him too.

[sisnaz]

Perhaps embedded method is a loose term. This is what I'm referring to. In my opinion it reflects the same goto example you posted.

public string ReturnSomething()
{
// ... some logic
// ...
var compare = new Func<string, string, string, string, bool>((compare1, compare2, compare3, compare4) =>
{
return (compare1.Equals(compare2, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) &&
compare3.Equals(compare4, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
});

        // some more logic flow
        // ....

        if (compare("a", "b", "c", "d")) {
            // some logic
        }

        return "Something";
    }

[Mycroft Holmes]

OriginalGriff wrote:

var should be banned outside Linq!

Oh you CAN use them elsewhere!

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH

[Mycroft Holmes]

Actually I liked GOSUB but now I know why!

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH

[Brady Kelly]

I, for one, welcome our new var overlord. Use it all the time, except in non-assignment declarations.

[Brady Kelly]

I fail to see anything like goto in your example. Flow branching into a function when it is called is all I see, and that happens all over, every second in C#. The key difference here is that without using goto in your function body, you are still guaranteed a return to just after the line that calls the function.

[Lost User]

Then some guru comes along and declares any one of those language features dangerous and unsafe. The followers of the guru create a cult around that and go a little further by creating the sacred commandment 'Thou shalt not use (whatever)'. The following crusade will take years, but in the end we have nagging code checking tools that assume to know better than that overpaid code monkey in front of the machine.

harold aptroot wrote:

You can abuse pretty much every aspect of a general purpose programming language.

That's exactly why the gurus will never run out of work. In the wrong direction, if you ask me. Coders who have been trained to follow rules blindly are very helpless when something goes wrong. That costs time and money instead of making anything safer or more productive. If you, my special Java friends, happen to read this: Your current problems will end the day you finally start thinking, throw out the holy commandment not to manage memory and analyze your code. Or you can spend some more years trying to beat the garbage collection into submission. :)

At least artificial intelligence already is superior to natural stupidity

[CPallini]

I disagree. :)

Veni, vidi, vici.

[OriginalGriff]

It's easier to type - but it doesn't make the code more readable! You have to check the type of the IEnumerable that the variable is declared from in order to find out what type you are using within the loop:

foreach (var v in MyClass.Items)
{
...
}

Or

foreach (KeyValuePair<Guid, List<string>> kvp in MyClass.Items)
{
...
{

(Not that I'm advocating using KeyValuePair<Guid, List<string>> directly anyway, you understand)

Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

[BobJanova]

I quite like the use of 'var' when the thing to the right is clearly typed, e.g.

var map = new Dictionary<string, int>();

It was rather a failing in all C family languages that you had to write the type twice before when it's clearly there in the initialiser, and using var here is not hiding anything. I don't actually like it in Linq, it's too hard to see by inspection what the type of a Linq expression is. I quite like declaring those as IQueryable<whatever>.