[Python-checkins] bpo-43199: Briefly explain why no goto (GH-24852)
terryjreedy
webhook-mailer at python.org
Sun Mar 14 18:12:17 EDT 2021
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/5e29021a5eb10baa9147fd977cab82fa3f652bf0
commit: 5e29021a5eb10baa9147fd977cab82fa3f652bf0
branch: master
author: Terry Jan Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu>
committer: terryjreedy <tjreedy at udel.edu>
date: 2021-03-14T18:12:04-04:00
summary:
bpo-43199: Briefly explain why no goto (GH-24852)
Answer "Why is there no goto?" in the Design and History FAQ.
files:
A Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2021-03-13-18-43-54.bpo-43199.ZWA6KX.rst
M Doc/faq/design.rst
diff --git a/Doc/faq/design.rst b/Doc/faq/design.rst
index 7fe1c6d58f58a..f1f54eff86e87 100644
--- a/Doc/faq/design.rst
+++ b/Doc/faq/design.rst
@@ -600,7 +600,15 @@ test cases at all.
Why is there no goto?
---------------------
-You can use exceptions to provide a "structured goto" that even works across
+In the 1970s people realized that unrestricted goto could lead
+to messy "sphagetti" code that was hard to understand and revise.
+In a high-level language, it is also unneeded as long as there
+are ways to branch (in Python, with ``if`` statements and ``or``,
+``and``, and ``if-else`` expressions) and loop (with ``while``
+and ``for`` statements, possibly containing ``continue`` and ``break``).
+
+One can also use exceptions to provide a "structured goto"
+that works even across
function calls. Many feel that exceptions can conveniently emulate all
reasonable uses of the "go" or "goto" constructs of C, Fortran, and other
languages. For example::
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2021-03-13-18-43-54.bpo-43199.ZWA6KX.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2021-03-13-18-43-54.bpo-43199.ZWA6KX.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..d1b454fabd7f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2021-03-13-18-43-54.bpo-43199.ZWA6KX.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Answer "Why is there no goto?" in the Design and History FAQ.
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