Re^2: Oh noooooo!!

[A. Lester Buck]

In article <556 at tigger.planet.bt.co.uk>, raph at tigger.planet.bt.co.uk (Raphael Mankin) writes:
> 
> Before most readers of this new group were born, Dijkstra wrote an
> article called Uncontrolled use of Goto Considered Harmful. It was
> 		 ^^^^^^
> not called 'Goto considered Harmful'.
> -- 
> Raphael Mankin
> raph at planet.bt.co.uk

This is incorrect.  Following the recent suggestion in this newsgroup, I
pulled down my copy of "Classics in Software Engineering" (a collection of
reprints) and started to read Knuth's 1974 paper _Structured Programming
with go to Statements_.  Knuth carefully traces the history of the goto
debate, and lists three items before Dijkstra's name is mentioned.
Dijkstra's first discussion of goto's was in a paper entitled "Programming
Considered as a Human Activity" in 1965, also included in the above
mentioned book.  A few more people made comments about the desirablility
of goto's, but then

	"The next chapter in the story is what many people regard as the
	first, because it made the most waves. Dijkstra submitted a short
	article to _Communications of the ACM_ devoted entirely to a
	discussion of _go to_ statements.  In order to speed publication,
	the editor decided to publish Dijkstra's article as a letter, and
	to supply a new title, "Go to statement considered harmful."  This
	note rapidly became well-known; it expressed Dijkstra's conviction
	that _go to_'s "should be abolished from all 'higher level'
	programming languages (i.e., everything except, perhaps, plain
	machine code)....  The _go to_ statement as it stands is just too
	primitive; it is too much an invitation to make a mess of one's
	program."  He encouraged looking for alternative constructions
	which may be necessary to satisfy all needs.  Dijkstra also recalled
	that Heinz Zemanek had expressed doubts about _go to_ statements
	as early as 1959;..."


The "Classics" reprint book also includes Dijkstra's "Go To Statement
Considered Harmful", as well as "A Case Against the GOTO" by W. A. Wulf
and "A Case for the GOTO" by M. E. Hopkins.


Knuth's paper is excellent, including classic lines such as:

	"It is impossible to read the recent book _Structured Programming_
	[by Dahl, Dijkstra, and Hoare, 1972] without having it change
	your life."

and my favorite

	"At the IFIP Congress in 1971 I had the pleasure of meeting
	Dr. Eiichi Goto of Japan, who cheerfully complained that he was
	always being eliminated."


Classics in Software Engineering
Ed. by Edward Nash Yourdon
ISBN 0-917072-14-6
Yourdon Press, 1979


-- 
A. Lester Buck		...!texbell!moray!siswat!buck