RE: Is this the Free-Format that we asked for?

Jon, we disagree about goto but I am torn between the issues.

If I cannot code a GOTO or BRANCH command in version 5 of a language when
the other 4 versions supported GOTO then something has been removed.

I think that there are good defensible uses of GOTO.

I think that political-correct-ness is good defense.

Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson and Associates Ltd.
IBM Business Partner
mailto:richardjackson@richardjackson.net
http://www.richardjacksonltd.com
Telephone: 1 (303) 808-8058


-|-----Original Message-----
-|From: owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-rpg400-l@midrange.com]On
-|Behalf Of Jon.Paris@hal.it
-|Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 7:08 PM
-|To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
-|Subject: RE: Is this the Free-Format that we asked for?
-|
-|
-|
-| >> GOTOs can be pernicious but if you remove them from the language, you
-|have to do more work to use the new language spec.
-|
-|Guys can we get real about this for a while?
-|
-|Nobody - repeat nobody is taking ANYTHING (yes I am shouting) away.  They
-|have simply chosen not to support some of the more antiquated features of
-|the RPG language in the new free-form option.  Note the word OPTION.  The
-|existing RPG IV stays the way it is.  The new free-form variant is just
-|that an additional variant.
-|
-|Frankly I think if you absolutely must use a GOTO (and I'd fire anyone who
-|did) then the fact that you have to drop out of free-form to do it is a
-|positive advantage since it makes it obvious to everybody that the ghastly
-|thing is there just waiting to jump on them in the future!
-|
-|No argument that a GOTO can sometimes be the simplest fastest way of
-|handling something and if I was the only one who ever maintained my code
-|maybe I wouldn't mind so much.  Trouble is I'm not the one who
-|maintains it
-|and once you allow its use who is to say that it can't be used
-|elsewhere in
-|the program.  Me - I'm a simple soul - I figure banning it is way easier
-|than sorting out the mess its abuse causes.
-|
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