RE: Number of times I've used goto in Perl

[Simplicus]

in reply to Number of times I've used goto in Perl

I only used goto once in my life (explicitly)(I'm not counting uses of goto made by others in packages or modules I have included. I'm not a snob, I've just never found it useful. A language construct should clarify, not obfuscate, and goto almost always "spaghettifies" the code.
If someone can come up with an example of an instance where goto is necessary for the purpose of clarification in code, I'd love to see it.

Simplicus

[buzzcutbuddha]

I have never used GOTO in Perl, but in Visual Basic, which I learned in school. There
it's used for error handling where you would say:


     On Error Goto ErrHandler

and then construct an appropriate subroutine underneath the ErrHandler tag to handle the error.
I believe the reason that VB uses GOTO in that situation is because an error can
conceivably occur at anypoint, and you want to be able to catch it immediately, instead
of wrapping things in a TRY..EXCEPT model. But that type of unexpected error seems to me
more of a problem in an 'event driven' piece of code, and not so much the style with which
Perl is used. Plus I think that it is more difficult to use than other methods I have seen.
So I personally cannot see the value of GOTO in Perl, though I do not deny it's validity, or the
skills of anyone who uses it.
just my $0.02..

[JavaFan]

If someone can come up with an example of an instance where goto is necessary for the purpose of clarification in code, I'd love to see it.

necessary? I doubt many examples exists. However, I doubt there are many examples showing OO to be necessary for the purpose of clarification (or any other purpose). Necessary implies there not being an alternative. In Perl, there's almost always an alternative. Whether it's for goto, or OO.