Structured design, goto's, and the holy grail

[Richard Harter]

In article <607 at cresswell.quintus.UUCP] ok at quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
](1) It's hierarchical ("hieros" = a priest; has nothing to do with "heirs").

	Color me blushing.  Yes, I know how to spell hierarchy, et al.
I even know the derivation.  The fingers refuse to do what the mind dictates.
One of my maxims of programming is "Never use variable names that you
consistently misspell."

](2) May I recommend
]
]	Structured Design: Fundamentals of a Discipline of Computer
]	Program and Systems Design
]	Edward Yourdon/Larry L. Constantine
]	Prentice-Hall 1979
]	ISBN 0-13-854471-9
]
]    This book explains various sorts of intermodule coupling quite clearly,
]and also some of the problems with them.  The material in it goes back a
]few years, but it's none the worse for that.

	Not to me, you can't.  I have strong prejudices against Yourdon
and his operation.  To be fair, the book you mention is a good book.

]    In any programming language you have to use the tools you've got.
]C's modularity is better than Fortran's (two routines can share a
]variable without having to making available to the whole world), but
]that isn't saying much.

	In prinicple labelled common is Fortran's method for routines
sharing data; life is too short to discuss the, ah, merits of this 
approach.  C's approach is quite nice for writing packages stuffed in
a single file, when the shared data is truly local.  Much better than
nothing.
-- 

In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
	Richard Harter, SMDS  Inc.