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- Path: netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov!sam
- From: sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov (Sam Sirlin)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.apl
- Subject: Re: GOTO controversy
- Date: 19 Mar 1996 17:41:10 GMT
- Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <4imrjm$pqm@netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov>
- References: <rcshlds.1.000A6705@mailserv.mta.ca> <4grt4e$8fg@goanna.cs.rmit.EDU.AU> <4hl8mt$4po@newshost.cyberramp.net> <4hlg11$dd7@news1.mnsinc.com> <4hpits$1p1v@b.stat.purdue.edu> <4i0fj8$sd3@tierra.santafe.edu> <3147F456.50F0@simi.is>
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- In article <3147F456.50F0@simi.is>, Bj÷rn Helgason <bjornhp@simi.is> writes:
- |> In most instances they are not needed. I might add that in ALL cases
- |> you could avoid GOTOs and LOOPs if you really put your mind to it.
-
- Hmm. Doesn't seem that way to me. There are certain analysis
- algorithms that must be sequential. One could for example use some
- parallel algorithm to solve an ode initial value problem, but this
- will have problems with real world nonlinearities and hysteresis and
- discrete states (I deal with these all the time in spacecraft dynamics
- and control problems). Then there's the field of real time simulation
- - where I have real hardware I'm trying to control, mixed with
- (digital) control software and (analog) dynamics simulation.
- Processes like simulation are inherently sequential, and must be
- handled by some kind of loop. Recursion as a concept could be used,
- but you still have a loop. Recursion seems much more useful a concept
- when what you do at each stage changes (e.g. the factorial
- computation).
-
- |> In the most advanced of languages, J , there were no GOTOs or LOOPs in
- |> the beginning. They have been introduced in the most recent versions
- |> of J and are now a well appreciated part of J.
-
- Hmm. Goto's were in existance in J from the beginning, in the suite
- ($...), though I can't say about the very first version of the code.
-
- --
- Sam Sirlin Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Email: sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov
-
-