Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

that's definitely not categorically true


Can you think of a counterexample? I wouldn't be surprised if you could trick a compiler with a goto but optimizing control flow is very much the type of optimization that Knuth was referring to. Now that almost all compilers use SSA I'd be surprised if it was the case outside of fairly deep control flow


Error handling was already mentioned ITT. Goto use seems like a litmus test for bad programming. The presence of it doesn't prove bad programmings but lots of goto statements could be reasonably be expected to be replaced with safer switch statements. Extremely nested functions are another area that is best served with a goto. Breaking out of many functions has performance implications I believe.


The question was about performance, not necessarily other aspects.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: