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by ForHackernews 40 days ago
> It's like arguing about whether a language should have "goto" or not

We all agreed they shouldn't, right? I'm not familiar with any language designed in the last 15 (20?) years that has a goto statement.

So, yes, I agree this is a very old argument and it's sad that Golang repeated the failures of its predecessors.

At least it doesn't include "goto", though the temptation to do it for the wordplay must have been intense.

Edit: Amusingly, it appears that PHP added goto in version 5.3 (August 2014) https://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.goto.php
3 comments
tptacek 39 days ago
No, nobody agrees about these things, which is why this is the most boring argument in computer science. You can't even get people to agree on typing. Not "which type system", any of it.

If you think your current position on these debates --- nullability, gotos, typing --- is the obviously correct position, you simply haven't talked to enough people. The answer to all these questions --- the real answer --- is "it's more complicated than you think".

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xyzzy_plugh 39 days ago
> At least it doesn't include "goto", though the temptation to do it for the wordplay must have been intense.

https://go.dev/ref/spec#Goto_statements

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overfeed 40 days ago
> We all agreed they shouldn't, right?

We didnt't agree to that, only thet thr over usage of goto hurts readability, but it is perfectly fine where appropriate (as a JMP analog to non-assembly[0]). Any language that supports loop naming implements a subset of goto, and proves why it's sometimes necessary.

0. Why isn't JMP considered harmful?

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