<news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Happy Trails <nom...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Does BBCB allow labels instead of line numbers anywhere at all, or
>> only not as the object of a GOTO?
>
> The original BBC BASIC did not allow labels of any kind; destinations
> of GOTO, GOSUB, RESTORE etc. had to be line numbers. However
> since all the necessary control structures were present to write
programs
> entirely without GOTOs, one was encouraged to do that. I never use
> GOTOs in any of my programs, and I have always felt that providing
> labels would encourage poor program structure.
>
> However there is one respect in which the absence of labels is
> limiting, and that is when converting programs from other dialects of
> BASIC. Replacing the labels with line numbers is undesirable, and
> rewriting the code to eliminate them altogether is extra effort.
> Therefore in fact you *can* use labels in recent versions of BBC BASIC
> for Windows but the implementation is minimal and not intended for use
> in new programs.
Richard, surely you aren't saying that functions and subroutines can only
have numbers instead of labels? Though I understand your objection to
using goto, if someone is going to use goto anyway, wouldn't "goto
<meaningful-label>" be better than "goto <meaningless-number>"?
I couldn't remember the last time I used goto in a BASIC program, but
your statement about not using goto for 25 years prompted me to search
all my BASIC code for goto's. The only goto's I could find in programs
since the 1970's were to handle error or termination situations where
there
was no better syntax available, such as "ON ERROR GOTO". One was
to exit from a deeply nested FOR/NEXT structure.
--
Judson McClendon judmc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
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