pouët.net

Goto, Break and Continue

category: offtopic [glöplog]
@svo: That!
Even if I haven't use goto for a long and rarely need it, it became kinda of a dogma where it's a sin to even use one and programmers would reactively screetch seeing one, even in the proper cases. While, there are other C++ things that are too confusing to me, for the same reasons that people were critical on goto (recently, we were using boost signals at work, and I was like wtf, where am I supposed to know where the signal comes and what it calls without search all over the source code, lost the flow when debugging, but it's ok because it's a cool new and useful at some cases thing).
added on the 2018-09-30 10:03:16 by Optimus Optimus
Yeah, signals are way worse than just a simple goto. But it’s boost so of course it’s cool and fancy to use.
added on the 2018-09-30 10:07:07 by Preacher Preacher
I recommend COMEFROM
added on the 2018-09-30 10:25:32 by skrebbel skrebbel
with multiple COMFROM it automagically creates threads, awesome!
added on the 2018-09-30 11:05:13 by skarab skarab
Here's a goto avoidance pattern I saw in real code this week:
Code:for (int i=0;i<1;i++) { int err = try_something(); if (err) break; err = try_something_else(); if (err) break; /* and so on */ } cleanup();
added on the 2018-09-30 14:31:01 by cce cce
More like an antipattern to me. "if (err) goto cleanup; normal(); return; cleanup: cleanup(stuff); }" is clearer to me.
added on the 2018-09-30 14:37:31 by porocyon porocyon
Also, nothing new has been said for the last two pages. Just go make a demo.
added on the 2018-09-30 14:38:18 by porocyon porocyon
Oh man...
The main Disjktra's point was not about readability, but about proving code correctness.

But what we are even talking about... average "code pusher" today is creating more bugs than features and everyone is actually happy about it (because it is nicely inflating the cost of making software).
added on the 2018-09-30 14:40:07 by tomkh tomkh
Quote:
Can I have your opinions on the use of goto, break and continue statements in code?


I would really like to learn the reason you are asking this.

When I started learning how to code I used to use goto A LOT. Nowadays it seems to me more of a deprecated way to do stuff and I mostly use it when there is no other way of doing sth differently, like for example in .bat files. The jumping commands for me is system that is old and is included in most languages for either the case of someone starting to learn how to code or when there is no other way for the coder to do sth.
added on the 2018-09-30 17:12:48 by Defiance Defiance
Quote:
for (int i=0;i<1;i++) {


Also saw this more compact as for (;;) of course, but at some places as while(0,0) - not sure what the second 0 is, something about compiler warnings. Bizarre.
added on the 2018-09-30 17:34:47 by Optimus Optimus
No idea why (0,0) would be less warning-prone than (0), but it sure looks cool.
added on the 2018-09-30 21:02:13 by svo svo
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1853723/in-c-macros-should-one-prefer-do-while0-0-over-do-while0

I still don't understand what's the second 0. Never seen this syntax before. As one puts it in the comments, maybe your code needs more owls :)
added on the 2018-09-30 22:17:02 by Optimus Optimus
It's what called the built-in comma operator. In this form, the first expression (the first 0) is evaluated, and its result is discarded. Then the second expression is evaluated (the second 0) and it's result is returned. As said in the comments, in the case of while(0,0) the only reason is to have it shut up that MVSC warning.
added on the 2018-09-30 23:31:40 by utz utz
Quote:
Here's a goto avoidance pattern I saw in real code this week:
Code:for (int i=0;i<1;i++) { int err = try_something(); if (err) break; err = try_something_else(); if (err) break; /* and so on */ } cleanup();


Exceptions were not available? That code above is not exception safe (and what Stroustroup calls "a rat's nest of tests" - which I 100% agree with).

http://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq2.html#exceptions-why
added on the 2018-10-01 07:14:59 by Salinga Salinga
salinga: not everyone is using c++, and even if they are, not everyone is willing to pay the resulting ~5% performance hit.
added on the 2018-10-01 11:58:25 by arm1n arm1n
I've always thought that jump instructions are evil. Memory loads and stores are evil too, let alone register manipulations. Awful side effects, the previous value is usually almost completely destroyed. Even NOP is unsafe because it moves the instruction pointer!
added on the 2018-10-01 17:09:54 by yzi yzi
Quote:
the resulting ~5% performance hit.


http://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2017/01/measuring-execution-performance-of-c.html
added on the 2018-10-01 18:46:46 by Salinga Salinga
C++ coders can't even make clickable links!
added on the 2018-10-01 18:57:14 by yzi yzi
@utz: Thanks!
added on the 2018-10-01 19:18:53 by Optimus Optimus
Well, hopefully in a few decades std::optional will have arrived in mainstream production and we can finally be done with error codes vs exceptions ducks

@Optimus, some more info on the comma operator:
https://www.fluentcpp.com/2018/07/31/how-to-get-along-with-the-comma-operator/
added on the 2018-10-01 21:31:41 by utz utz
The problem is a lot of programmer dont know the difference between an error and a status and mix them together. You dont use status code values to transmit an error info and you dont use exceptions to transmit a status info. Also exceptions prevent redundant code; checking a result code for an error per "if" is code executed 100% of the time for 0.0001% of the chance that an error happens. That alone gives you a clue. Plus that exception handling breaks out the error handling code out of the routine, where it does not belong. Plus that it forces a programmer to always think about how a resource (memory, handle, transaction, connection) at initialization is always freed (see RAII), which causes always stable running code if an error happens or not.
added on the 2018-10-01 22:27:55 by Salinga Salinga
Not really a goto, not even a goto-avoidance trick, but it actually puzzled me for a minute this morning (grossly simplified in this snippet):
Code: int dudu(int k) { switch (k) { case 0: int m = 3; return m * k; case 1: //can you guess compiler error without compiling? return k; } }


It's lovely that gcc, g++ and clang all produce slightly different errors here. g++4.3 being the most helpful, clang being absurdly confusing.
added on the 2018-10-02 11:24:41 by svo svo
you sure it produces errors? not warnings?!
seems like a normal fallthrough to me, so the first return would be used in case of k=0 !

oh, wait, there´s no return at all in case k>1, so...
"function doesn´t always return a value"...sth like that of an error-msg?
Basically this thread is not about if a goto is accepted amongst coders (because of readability), but about what yzi said.

If you jump (goto), the predictability is gone, so the cache has to rebuild completely and so on...this is maybe how the thread-starter came up with the Q i guess.

Having said this, the breaks in a switch i mentioned earlier should be very predictable still, or?! so this shouldn´t be a big problem at all. same with return and even continue.
Quote:
http://nibblestew.blogspot.com/2017/01/measuring-execution-performance-of-c.html


the thing is, this assumes that you actually go down the rabbit hole of nested error code handling/passthrough with nesting level >= 1 or 2. Which I (and many others) don't. If some critical DirectX call fails e.g., something is seriously wrong and I just assert/abort.
added on the 2018-10-02 12:40:55 by arm1n arm1n

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