On Feb 19, 2006, at 10:10 AM, Glenn E. Fisher wrote:
As a historical note, (I'm a very old programmer since 1962) back when I was writing compilers and emulators in B and C in the line editing mode ;-), the switch case statements were really needed. In these kinds of programs many many cases was the norm and the nested if..then..else just didn't cut it. So it depends on the scope of the problem which is the best.
I can only claim to go back to '71 with Basic on a PDP-8 but let me say amen. It can be shown that switch statements are not "necessary" in the sense that you can always simulate a switch with an if/else construct but if the options are based on a single value which has more than two possible values, a switch is MUCH less subject to error than is if/else if/else if. It's not a strong argument against its use that beginners have trouble understanding the concept (although I'm not understanding what is so difficult about the concept). Beginners have terrible time getting the concepts of object oriented programming or exception handling too but these concepts have certainly resulted in much clearer, more maintainable code.
BTW, IMHO the conversation about whether this is how we think in everyday life is not very helpful: we don't think with the binary logic of computer programs at all. E.g. we generally do not have a rigid list of who it might be at the door with a predetermined intention to take particular action depending on who it is. This kind of rigidity, however, is part and parcel of computer programming whether it be xTalk or C or Basic.
James P. Spencer Rochester, MN [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Badges?? We don't need no stinkin badges!" _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
