No gotos in Bourne shell

[Daniel R. Levy]

In article <1988Apr20.072731.461 at utzoo.uucp>, henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
# 
# > It is also "amusing" to "note" that DEC has done right well with its DCL which
# > has yet to support a loop constructor of any kind other than GOTO.
# 
# If you consider marketing success a sign of technical merit, I trust you are
# using an ASR33 connected to a VAX 730 running VMS on RL01 disks to write
# assembler code for an IBM PC running MSDOS? ;-)

Your feeble attempt at a humorous counterexample is, well, unlaughable.
The worst/slowest of the items you mention (the ASR33 and the VAX 730) have
next to no share of the market today.  VMS and big VAXEN are successes NOW
in TECHNICAL MARKETS.  The market HAS spoken, not always in the way I'd
hope (rah rah, UNIX _OPERATING SYSTEM_) but it somehow gets what it needs.
It is cruelly indifferent to technical stuffed-shirtness.  All it wants
is RELIABLE RESULTS and if by cracky DCL with GOTOs can contribute to VMS's
ability to produce reliable results, it sells!  I'm sure DEC would cry (all
the way to the bank) at your criticisms.

It is also amusing to note that the brightest, brainiest, elitest technical
innovation means nothing, nada, zilch, until it finds a use.
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