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SubjectRe: Structure vs purism ?


On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Dave Jones. wrote:

> Gcc will generate the same 'short jmp' x86 instruction for a goto, or a
> break; The only time code is generated differently is when a function is
> created out of code which is goto'd from several places. This type of code
> is quite spaghetti like, and a more structured approach can only generate
> better code than this tangled mess of short jmp's. Even if extra functions
> are created, if short enough gcc can be told to inline them, resulting in
> almost-identical result to what we currently have, but with more readable
> source code.

The difference being that not all gotos are equal. If you have
something like
if (improbable_condition)
foo();
else
bar();
baz();

yo can translate it different ways. The best one being:
<test the condition>
jump to l1 if true;
code for foo();
l2:
code for baz();
return;
l1:
code for bar();
jump to l2;

That way the expectation value of execution time becomes minimal. If the
code for foo() and baz() is cheap and codition is really improbable we get
a serious speedup. Compiler can't tell the relative probability of code
paths. The standard way to achieve this effect being:

if (improbable_condition)
goto off_the_main_path_we_go;
foo();
cleanup:
baz();
return;
off_the_main_path_we_go:
bar();
goto cleanup;


> Then 2.2.0pre8 arrived, which had goto's in some places where there were
> not before, whilst the average goto count per file remained roughly the
> same.

Which reminds me of average temperature of patients per floor in
hospital...

[snip]
> The idea of goto's being a 'bad thing' is possibly the first thing that
> gets taught on pretty much every programming course I've ever been on.
> Some might argue, that this ideology is just for purists, but compilers
> have become a lot more advanced. The use of constructs such as goto are
> outdated crutches used by people too lazy to write a more structured
> solution.

It's not a question of structured vs. spaghettish. It's a question
of implementing two constructs missing in C: asymmetric if and (gaack!)
very limited sort of exceptions. Compilers might get advanced and all
such, but in C we have no way to inform compiler on relative probability
of branches (and it can't figure it out for itself - AI-complete problem).
Notice that ten levels of nested ifs are not more readable than a jungle
of gotos. There is a logic behind the rejection of gotos. In many
situations it leads to winnitude. But if you'll look at this one you'll
get the opposite result.


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