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  3. for those of you purists that don't like break, continue and goto

for those of you purists that don't like break, continue and goto

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  • J John Brett

    Quote:

    but then I wouldn't write that code by hand. Too error prone.

    Isn't this exactly the point? All code gets compiled/interpreted/translated to jmps eventually. The goals of the written code should be correctness, understandability and simplicity. Leave the gotos and the clever techniques to the compiler.

    H Offline
    H Offline
    honey the codewitch
    wrote on last edited by
    #49

    I'll optimize when i need to. that doesn't always make the code readable.

    When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

    J 1 Reply Last reply
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    • H honey the codewitch

      I'll optimize when i need to. that doesn't always make the code readable.

      When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

      J Offline
      J Offline
      John Brett
      wrote on last edited by
      #50

      The reality is that with modern code, it's so far removed from the underlying machine language that gets executed that there's no point trying optimisations at the level of a break vs setting the iterator. Optimisations nowadays are at architectural levels - managing tight loops, using appropriate data structures, parallelisation, resource access.

      H 1 Reply Last reply
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      • J John Brett

        The reality is that with modern code, it's so far removed from the underlying machine language that gets executed that there's no point trying optimisations at the level of a break vs setting the iterator. Optimisations nowadays are at architectural levels - managing tight loops, using appropriate data structures, parallelisation, resource access.

        H Offline
        H Offline
        honey the codewitch
        wrote on last edited by
        #51

        yes and no. it depends on whether you consider algorithmic optimizations to be architecture. For example, my first crack at LALR(1) table generation was taking 5 minutes to generate the tables for javascript. My second one cut that to a 5th of the time. The cost was code that was no longer "pure" and readable. It wasn't an architecture change. Unless you think it was. But I wouldn't agree, and I wrote it.

        When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • H honey the codewitch

          why do this?

          for(int i = 0;i
          instead of

          for(int i = 0;i

          hengh?? why you still use break?

          :laugh:

          When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

          M Offline
          M Offline
          maze3
          wrote on last edited by
          #52

          I fixed your mistake, you didn't put some space after semi-colons in the for statement.

          Book[] arr = books;
          for(int i = 0; i

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • H honey the codewitch

            why do this?

            for(int i = 0;i
            instead of

            for(int i = 0;i

            hengh?? why you still use break?

            :laugh:

            When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

            M Offline
            M Offline
            MSBassSinger
            wrote on last edited by
            #53

            Why not? What is the net value gain by the alternative you show?

            H 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • M MSBassSinger

              Why not? What is the net value gain by the alternative you show?

              H Offline
              H Offline
              honey the codewitch
              wrote on last edited by
              #54

              there is none

              When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • H honey the codewitch

                why do this?

                for(int i = 0;i
                instead of

                for(int i = 0;i

                hengh?? why you still use break?

                :laugh:

                When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                O Offline
                O Offline
                obermd
                wrote on last edited by
                #55

                Those two code snippets don't do the same thing. The first doesn't change arr, the second does.

                H 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • H honey the codewitch

                  why do this?

                  for(int i = 0;i
                  instead of

                  for(int i = 0;i

                  hengh?? why you still use break?

                  :laugh:

                  When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                  W Offline
                  W Offline
                  W Balboos GHB
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #56

                  Purist? Baaah! Think of this in terms of far-Eastern philosophy, to wit, Yin/Yang[^]. Always the spot of yin in the yang portion, the spot of yang in the yin portion. Neither can exist without the other. So, continue to use break as they help you goto a better place.

                  Ravings en masse^

                  "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                  "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

                  H 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • O obermd

                    Those two code snippets don't do the same thing. The first doesn't change arr, the second does.

                    H Offline
                    H Offline
                    honey the codewitch
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #57

                    How does it do that? If it does, it is a bug

                    When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • H honey the codewitch

                      why do this?

                      for(int i = 0;i
                      instead of

                      for(int i = 0;i

                      hengh?? why you still use break?

                      :laugh:

                      When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                      S Offline
                      S Offline
                      SeattleC
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #58

                      Because neither one of these loops does anything except waste time. Was there perhaps a reason you wanted to find out if valueToFind was in arr? If there was, the first loop is almost right, i points to the matching entry on loop exit. Only problem is, i goes out of scope on loop exit. Sigh. The second loop always has i== arr.Length on loop exit, and i still goes out of scope

                      H 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • S SeattleC

                        Because neither one of these loops does anything except waste time. Was there perhaps a reason you wanted to find out if valueToFind was in arr? If there was, the first loop is almost right, i points to the matching entry on loop exit. Only problem is, i goes out of scope on loop exit. Sigh. The second loop always has i== arr.Length on loop exit, and i still goes out of scope

                        H Offline
                        H Offline
                        honey the codewitch
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #59

                        the code to do something is supposed to go in the loop body. i omitted it for the example. sorry i wasn't more clear.

                        When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • W W Balboos GHB

                          Purist? Baaah! Think of this in terms of far-Eastern philosophy, to wit, Yin/Yang[^]. Always the spot of yin in the yang portion, the spot of yang in the yin portion. Neither can exist without the other. So, continue to use break as they help you goto a better place.

                          Ravings en masse^

                          "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                          "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

                          H Offline
                          H Offline
                          honey the codewitch
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #60

                          Prince Wang's programmer was coding software. His fingers danced upon the keyboard. The program compiled without and error message, and the program ran like a gentle wind. "Excellent!" the Prince exclaimed. "Your technique is faultless!" "Technique?" said the programmer, turning from his terminal, "What I follow is Tao -- beyond all techniques! When I first began to program, I would see before me the whole problem in one mass. After three years, I no longer saw this mass. Instead, I used subroutines. But now I see nothing. My whole being exists in a formless void. My senses are idle. My spirit, free to work without a plan, follows its own instinct. In short, my program writes itself. True, sometimes there are difficult problems. I see them coming, I slow down, I watch silently. Then I change a single line of code and the difficulties vanish like puffs of idle smoke. I then compile the program. I sit still and let the joy of the work fill my being. I close my eyes for a moment and then log off." Prince Wang said, "Would that all of my programmers were as wise!" - The Tao of Programming

                          When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • H honey the codewitch

                            why do this?

                            for(int i = 0;i
                            instead of

                            for(int i = 0;i

                            hengh?? why you still use break?

                            :laugh:

                            When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                            A Offline
                            A Offline
                            AnotherKen
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #61

                            only use Goto if you like spaghetti code ;)

                            H 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • A AnotherKen

                              only use Goto if you like spaghetti code ;)

                              H Offline
                              H Offline
                              honey the codewitch
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #62

                              i use gotos for generated state machine code so the code will look exactly like the graphs generated by graphviz. it makes the code more understandable. like this snippet, implementing q1 of the graph:

                              q1:
                              if((pc.Current>='0'&& pc.Current<='9')||
                              (pc.Current>='A'&& pc.Current<='Z')||
                              (pc.Current=='_')||
                              (pc.Current>='a'&& pc.Current<='z')) {
                              sb.Append((char)pc.Current);
                              pc.Advance();
                              goto q1;
                              }
                              return new System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair("id",sb.ToString());

                              from (A Regular Expression Engine in C#[^]) there's supposed to be a picture at the link but it's no longer showing up for me. maybe it will for you. in any case, there's a time and a place for everything.

                              When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                              A 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • H honey the codewitch

                                i use gotos for generated state machine code so the code will look exactly like the graphs generated by graphviz. it makes the code more understandable. like this snippet, implementing q1 of the graph:

                                q1:
                                if((pc.Current>='0'&& pc.Current<='9')||
                                (pc.Current>='A'&& pc.Current<='Z')||
                                (pc.Current=='_')||
                                (pc.Current>='a'&& pc.Current<='z')) {
                                sb.Append((char)pc.Current);
                                pc.Advance();
                                goto q1;
                                }
                                return new System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair("id",sb.ToString());

                                from (A Regular Expression Engine in C#[^]) there's supposed to be a picture at the link but it's no longer showing up for me. maybe it will for you. in any case, there's a time and a place for everything.

                                When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                                A Offline
                                A Offline
                                AnotherKen
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #63

                                If you can keep it that ordered then that is good. The problem with the convenience of goto is that it tends to end up being over-used and that is what leads to problems.

                                H 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • A AnotherKen

                                  If you can keep it that ordered then that is good. The problem with the convenience of goto is that it tends to end up being over-used and that is what leads to problems.

                                  H Offline
                                  H Offline
                                  honey the codewitch
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #64

                                  yeah, i use gotos pretty much in generated code. in this case, it just happened to make the code clearer, but state machines are kind of their own animal. It's really hard to implement one using "proper" looping techniques. At best you have a while(true) loop with a giant switch case in it. =(

                                  When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • H honey the codewitch

                                    why do this?

                                    for(int i = 0;i
                                    instead of

                                    for(int i = 0;i

                                    hengh?? why you still use break?

                                    :laugh:

                                    When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.

                                    Z Offline
                                    Z Offline
                                    zezba9000
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #65

                                    Define purist? Because using C the way it was designed to be used in more pure.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
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