Re: Additional RPGLE Enhancement Requests

Charlie Massoglia wrote:
> 
> What I really want is the following:
> 
>                 GOTO  VARNAME
> 
> Where you put the address of the tag to which you want to branch.
> 
> A variation of this would be the following:
> 
>                 EVAL  VARNAME = %ADDR(TAGNAME) + NUM
> 
>                 GOTO  VARNAME
> 
> I just love self-modifying code.
> 

        This one will get you a lot of angry mail. This kind of technique may
make shorter code but it is way to prone to bad programming. The problem
with goto is not the goto itself (it is the most powerful control
opcode). The problem is that it is very easy to make bad code with it.
Your suggested improvement would make this even more likely. I know that
avoiding goto will not, by itself, make you programs more maintainable,
but for every program where a goto was used in a good manner, there is
ten where not. 

        Also, someone posted a reply of the sort: If you dont like it, dont use
it and leave us alone. I would accept this argument if and only if this
person can garanty me that no one else but him will ever have to modify
is code.

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