292: goto - Revision history

Lettherebedarklight: /* Trivia */ add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

2025-12-15T09:00:27Z

‎Trivia: add Category:Comics with a Spanish translation

172.71.178.95: /* Explanation */ e.g. Perl's next/redo/last keywords. ('Safer' than the arbitrary goto would be, but still causes possible confusion if you 'drop out' multiple loop-layers and/or restart a code block that doesn't even have a loop keyword in it!)

2024-03-26T18:08:27Z

‎Explanation: e.g. Perl's next/redo/last keywords. ('Safer' than the arbitrary goto would be, but still causes possible confusion if you 'drop out' multiple loop-layers and/or restart a code block that doesn't even have a loop keyword in it!)

TRSNS: /* Explanation */ Fixed a borked link. Linking to a scan of the original.

2024-03-26T17:06:21Z

‎Explanation: Fixed a borked link. Linking to a scan of the original.

Lettherebedarklight: /* Transcript */ better

2023-11-24T08:12:33Z

‎Transcript: better

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2022-05-26T19:59:27Z

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Theusaf: Reverted edits by 👖🔥 (talk) to last revision by 172.70.110.65

2022-05-11T18:47:33Z

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👖🔥 at 17:29, 11 May 2022

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← Older revision		Revision as of 09:00, 15 December 2025
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	[[Category:Velociraptors]]		[[Category:Velociraptors]]
	[[Category:Programming]]		[[Category:Programming]]
		+	[[Category:Comics with a Spanish translation]]

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 The name ''main_sub3'' of the ''goto'' destination also shows bad programming style: it is an unmeaningful name suggesting that at least two similarly unmeaningful names are used for other ''goto'' marks and it is contradictory in that a chunk of code can either belong to the main program or to a subroutine, but not both.
-The title text refers to {{w|Neal Stephenson}}, an author of cyberpunk novels. A label is used in many programming languages to refer to a point in a program that a goto instruction can jump to. The joke is that one of Stephenson's characters in ''{{w|Cryptonomicon}}'' is named Goto Dengo. When said out loud, "Dengo" sounds like "Then go."
+The title text refers to {{w|Neal Stephenson}}, an author of cyberpunk novels. A label is used in many programming languages to refer to a point in a program that a goto instruction (or other flow-control statements) can jump to. The joke is that one of Stephenson's characters in ''{{w|Cryptonomicon}}'' is named Goto Dengo. When said out loud, "Dengo" sounds like "Then go."
 ==Transcript==

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 ==Explanation==
-''{{w|Goto}}'' is a construct found in many computer languages that causes control flow to go from one place in a program to another, without returning. Once common in computer programming, its popularity diminished in the 1960s and 1970s as focus on {{w|structured programming}} became the norm. {{w|Edsger W. Dijkstra}}'s article [http://www.u.arizona.edu/~rubinson/copyright_violations/Go_To_Considered_Harmful.html "Go To Statement Considered Harmful"] in particular contributed to the decline of ''goto.''
+''{{w|Goto}}'' is a construct found in many computer languages that causes control flow to go from one place in a program to another, without returning. Once common in computer programming, its popularity diminished in the 1960s and 1970s as focus on {{w|structured programming}} became the norm. {{w|Edsger W. Dijkstra}}'s article [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/362929.362947 "Go To Statement Considered Harmful"] in particular contributed to the decline of ''goto.''
 Often, people learning programming are told that ''goto'' is bad and should be avoided, but frequently, they are not given a good reason. [[Cueball]], as one of these people, sees no harm in using ''goto'' to avoid rewriting much of his program, most likely written in the C programming language. As a result, he is attacked by a [[velociraptor]]. Velociraptor attacks are a running joke (and fear) often expressed in [[xkcd]].

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 ==Transcript==
 :[Sideways view of Cueball sitting at computer, thinking.]
-:Cueball: I could restructure the program's flow - or use one little 'GOTO' instead.
+:Cueball: I could restructure the program's flow
 :Cueball: Eh, screw good practice. How bad can it be?
 :Text on computer: <tt>goto main_sub3;</tt>
 :<nowiki>*Compile*</nowiki>
 :[We now have a view from behind Cueball. Cueball looks at the computer.]
 :[A raptor jumps into the panel, pushing Cueball off his chair.]