[AccessD] Naming Conventions

Jim,
Are you sure that Dijkstra actually condemned GOSUB statements?
Practically everyone in the computer science community knows about his
groundbreaking "GOTO statements considered harmful" paper, but I have
never heard this applied to GOSUBs.

In some older BASIC languages, a GOSUB statement was used in a similar
manner to CALL, in that it would execute a separate subroutine, and
return to the exact same point in the calling routine when complete.
This concept is directly in line with the tenets of structured
programming, and IMHO a vital tool for modularizing code into manageable
blocks.  Contrast this with the "evil" GOTO statement, which allowed one
to jump mindlessly from procedure to procedure, with no specific rule as
to where code execution resumed.  Spaghetti code, anyone?

Now here's the part of the message where I'll probably stir up a
pointless debate.  I have used GOSUB statements for years in my
AccessBasic, VB and VBA code, and only recently stopped doing so because
the outdated syntax is confusing to someone unfamiliar with its use.

I personally try to avoid global variables (another debate in itself),
and limit the use of modular variables.  In routines using several
procedure-level variables, breaking an unwieldy procedure into smaller
ones involves passing multiple arguments to the child routines.  A
possible alternative is to break code blocks into separate sections of
the same routine and call it with GoSub.  Not only do you have the
benefit of sharing all of your procedure level variables, but the code
is kept bundled with your main sub.

I found this approach to be elegant and useful.  Many people would pan
it as clunky, outdated, and even arcane.  Eventually I stopped doing it
mainly for the benefit of others who have to maintain my code.


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence
(AccessD)
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2004 3:29 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Naming Conventions

John:

You might find this article, about the man who spent a major portion of
his life condemning the GOTO and GOSUB commands, interesting. Quote: He
was famously the leader in the abolition of the GOTO statement from
programming.

http://reference.creativesystemdesigns.com/miscellaneous.html#edsger

Jim


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