From: Ian Hobson Date: 2004-02-09T10:54:00+09:00 Subject: Re: Save the flip/flop op! In message <401C910E.80308@yahoo.com>, Michael campbell writes >John W. Kennedy wrote: > >> Hal Fulton wrote: >> >>> I meant it was ugly and obtuse, and no one would ever think >>>otherwise >>> unless he was used to Perl. >> Code with an invisible state always reminds me of COBOL, frankly. > >Interesting, since everything in COBOL is global and there IS no visibility... > PERFORM THROUGH provided more than too much INvisibility. When you combine that with GO TO that can take you anywhere and an EXIT that only returns if there was a relevant PERFORM, the opportunities for crap code were legion. IIRC every compiler generated self modifying code - it was the easiest way to handle the semantics of the language. Ian -- Ian - posting to a Newsgroup. Please remove everything to reply.