From: Jacob Fugal <lukfugl@...>
Date: 2005-12-14T01:09:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Idiom wanted: do-while

On 12/12/05, Steve Litt <slitt@earthlink.net> wrote:
> On Monday 12 December 2005 05:42 pm, James Edward Gray II wrote:
> > loop do
> >    # ... some action ...
> >    break unless ...
> > end
>
> I do this quite a bit, but it's not structured programming and is a little
> like a goto.

I see no similarity. 'goto' is unstructured because the target point
is completely arbitrary; place a label in your code then jump right to
it. 'break' is completely structured; it's part of the structure of
the enclosing loop and its target is defined by that structure.

> Break can improve readability on small loops, but on large loops
> maintained by multiple people it can become a nightmare.

I agree with James; if the loop is long enough or complex enough for
these to be a problem, the body of the loop probably needs some
serious refactoring.

Jacob Fugal