Skip to main content

A control statement for natural top-down structured programming

  • Structures De Controle Control Structures
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Programming Symposium

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 19))

Abstract

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion concerned with the advantages of a top-down structured style of programming and the question of whether or not to banish the goto control statement. The most compelling arguments for the retention of goto have referred to common programming situations where the absence of goto causes some awkwardness in the programming task or loss of efficiency for the running program. We propose a new control statement which alleviates many of these known difficulties while maintaining the philosophy of structured control. The new statement is well-matched to top-down programming and in some respects allows program modifications to be performed more easily.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • BOCHMANN G.V., "Multiple exits from a loop without the goto", Comm. ACM 16 (1973), pp. 443–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • CLINT M. and HOARE C.A.R., "Program proving: jumps and functions", Acta Informatica 1 (1972), pp. 214–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • DIJKSTRA E.W., "Goto statement considered harmful", Comm. ACM 11 (1968), pp. 147–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • DIJKSTRA E.W., "A short introduction to the art of programming", Technological University Eindhoven report EWD 316 (August 1971).

    Google Scholar 

  • DIJKSTRA E.W., "Notes on structured programming" in Structured Programming by Dahl, Dijkstra and Hoare, Academic Press (1972).

    Google Scholar 

  • FLOYD R.W., "Assigning meanings to programs", AMS Symposium in Applied Mathematics, Vol. XIX, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • HOARE C.A.R., Algorithms 63–65, Comm. ACM 4 (1961), pp. 321–322.

    Google Scholar 

  • HOARE C.A.R., "An axiomatic basis for computer programming", Comm. ACM 12 (1969), pp. 576–581.

    Google Scholar 

  • HOPKINS M.E., "A case for the goto", National ACM Conf. Proc. (1972), pp. 787–790.

    Google Scholar 

  • KNUTH D.E., "A review of structured programming", Stanford University Computer Science Department report CS-73-371 (June 1973).

    Google Scholar 

  • KNUTH D.E., Personal communication (January 1974).

    Google Scholar 

  • KNUTH D.E. and FLOYD R.W., "Notes on avoiding goto statements", Information Processing Letters 1 (1971), pp. 23–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • LANDIN P.J., "A correspondence between ALGOL 60 and Church's lambda-notation: part I", Comm. ACM 8 (1965), pp. 89–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • LEAVENWORTH B.M., "Programming with(out) the goto", National ACM Conf. Proc. (1972), pp. 782–786.

    Google Scholar 

  • LISKOV B., "Report of session on structured programming", Notices of ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages, (SIGPLAN), Vol. 8, No. 9 (September 1973), pp. 5–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • WEGNER E., "Tree-structured programs", Comm. ACM 16 (1973), pp. 704–705.

    Google Scholar 

  • WIRTH N., "On certain basic concepts of programming languages", Stanford University Computer Science Department report CS-65 (May 1967).

    Google Scholar 

  • WULF W.A., "Programming without the goto", Conf. Proc. IFIP-71 (1971), pp. 408–413.

    Google Scholar 

  • WULF W.A., "A case against the goto", National ACM Conf. Proc. (1972), pp. 791–797.

    Google Scholar 

  • WULF W.A., RUSSELL D.B. and HABERMANN A.N., "BLISS: A Language for systems programming", Comm. ACM 14 (1971), pp. 780–790.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

B. Robinet

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1974 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Zahn, C.T. (1974). A control statement for natural top-down structured programming. In: Robinet, B. (eds) Programming Symposium. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 19. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-06859-7_133

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-06859-7_133

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-06859-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-37819-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics