Re: problems/risks due to programming language, stories requested

["David F. Carlson" <zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave@think.com>]

In article <6960@internal.Apple.COM>, chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively) writes:
> 
> 
> For what it's worth, my personal opinion is that C lends itself to 
> precisely the kinds of errors noted above--when does break work and when 
> doesn't it, and why in God's name do you need it in switch statements in 
> the first place, etc.

What break does is *very* well defined and is no more prone to misinterpretation
that any other non-linear control flow statement in any other PL.

 From K&R2 p 244:

	A9.5: iteration statement is (for, while, do)...

	A break statement may appear only in an iteration statement or a switch 
	statement; control passes to the statement following the terminated
	statement.

A multi-case switch is very handy in many situations to reduce identical
treatments for similar cases.  That you ask the question of the usefulness
of break-per-case/multiple-cases implies that you haven't sufficient experience
with the construct to judge its merits/weaknesses.

Dijkstra notes that no programming language can prevent a poor programmer from
creating bad programs.

-- 
David F. Carlson, Micropen, Inc.
micropen!dave@ee.rochester.edu

"The faster I go, the behinder I get." --Lewis Carroll