"Go To Statement Considered Harmful"
E79784
"Go To Statement Considered Harmful" is a famous 1968 letter by Edsger W. Dijkstra that argued against the use of the goto statement in programming, helping to popularize structured programming principles.
Aliases (1)
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic article
→
computer science essay → letter → |
| aimedAtAudience |
computer scientists
→
programmers → |
| argument |
goto statement should be avoided in most circumstances
→
structured control constructs are preferable to goto → unrestricted goto complicates program verification → unrestricted goto harms program clarity → |
| author |
Edsger W. Dijkstra
→
Edsger W. Dijkstra →
surface form: "Edsger Wybe Dijkstra"
|
| coinedOrPopularizedPhrase | Considered Harmful → |
| countryOfPublication |
United States of America
→
surface form: "United States"
|
| criticizedConstruct |
arbitrary jumps in code
→
unstructured control flow → |
| field |
computer science
→
software engineering → |
| hasAuthorAffiliation |
Eindhoven University of Technology
→
surface form: "Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven"
|
| hasForm |
open letter
→
opinion piece → |
| hasImpactOn |
language features discouraging goto
→
structured programming education → |
| hasLegacy | inspired many later "Considered Harmful" titles → |
| historicalSignificance |
milestone in the history of programming methodology
→
sparked debate on goto usage → |
| influenced |
design of high-level programming languages
→
software engineering best practices → structured programming movement → teaching of programming → |
| mainSubject |
control flow
→
goto statement → program correctness → programming language design → structured programming → |
| notableFor |
being a classic paper in programming methodology
→
popularizing criticism of goto → popularizing structured programming principles → |
| originalLanguage | English → |
| proposedAlternative |
sequence selection and iteration constructs
→
structured control flow → |
| publicationDecade | 1960s → |
| publicationYear | 1968 → |
| publishedIn | Communications of the ACM → |
| publisher | Association for Computing Machinery → |
| relatedConcept |
Böhm–Jacopini theorem
→
control structures → program verification → |
| titlePhrase | Considered Harmful → |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.