RE: Why is LEAVE bad? (was: Cycle Processing vs. Doing it my way)

To write 10,000 lines of code to avoid a goto/leave/iter/leavsr verses
putting a leave in place to pop out of a loop, go to the top of a loop,
or leaving a subroutine is a little pointless.  One line of code to
avoid those hassles.  At the same time, I approached a person with a
programming problem 6 years ago - I would have had to re-write the logic
of the program, the client said simply "why not put a goto from there to
there" - 2 lines of code, and 10 minutes later I was done.

As far as cycle verses putting the logic in yourself - I maintain - "it
depends"

Read's verses reade are a same argument.  If you Setll then read and
check the "level" yourself, the system buffers chunks of data for that
are read.  Reade positions every time.  Using the cycle probably buffers
like mad since it can spin through the data.  20 lines of code later,
and you can convert the world with a cycle program.

Oh and so everyone knows, I'm 35, and in the industry since I'm 23 (12
years!) (since it's reveal how old you are and how long your in the
industry week on RPG-L)


Andrew Borts / Webmaster
Seta Corporation
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-----Original Message-----
From: Buck Calabro [mailto:Buck.Calabro@commsoft.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 9:47 AM
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: Why is LEAVE bad? (was: Cycle Processing vs. Doing it my way)

>And what is wrong with LEAVE? It hardly
>creates spaghetti code as the program flow
>is always in the one direction. I like to refer
>to a LEAVE as a structured GOTO!!!!!

>From a readability point of view, having multiple exit points means that
you
must visually scan every line of code in the routine to see where and
when
it can pop out.  This is in contrast to a routine that sets a return
code
and ONLY leaves from the bottom.  You don't need to scan the entire
routine
to see where you come out because there's only one exit point.

Having said that, I personally use LEAVE and ITER; especially in
validity
checking routines where the alternatives are worse.  But in my vanity, I
like to believe that I _think_ about the alternatives before
automatically
settling on GOTO and relatives.

  --buck
"To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult" --Plutarch
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