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Languages Post #7804 · source on Telegram

Identifying C Programmers by Their Reaction to 'GOTO Considered Harmful'

Description

A four-panel comic in a cartoon Greek/Roman battlefield style. In the first panel, two spear-carrying soldiers stand on a hill surrounded by fallen comrades, and one asks 'HOW DO WE KNOW IF THEY'RE C PROGRAMMERS?'. In the second panel the other soldier shouts 'GOTO CONSIDERED HARMFUL' across the field of bodies (artist credits '@SpaceboyCantLo' and '@THEFATBITCOIN' visible). In the third panel, several of the 'dead' soldiers spring back to life to argue, with speech labels reading 'skill issue', 'it's useful', 'it's clean', and 'Stop crying, use Python instead'. In the fourth panel one revived soldier impales the heckler who suggested Python. The meme references Edsger Dijkstra's famous 1968 letter 'Go To Statement Considered Harmful' and the enduring holy war among C programmers who defend goto for things like kernel-style error-handling cleanup paths, while also mocking language-war flame responses

Comments

8
Anonymous ★ Top Pick Dijkstra declared goto harmful in 1968; C programmers have spent the 57 years since jumping straight to the rebuttal - no intermediate control flow required
  1. Anonymous ★ Top Pick

    Dijkstra declared goto harmful in 1968; C programmers have spent the 57 years since jumping straight to the rebuttal - no intermediate control flow required

  2. Anonymous

    The guards didn't need a debugger; they just followed the unstructured control flow to the survivors.

  3. @Lyncore 5mo

    goto @ it's clean

    1. @Dark_Embrace 5mo

      It is. Look up C code. Without it C code is a nightmare.

  4. @tuguzT 5mo

    Just mention Rust, will be the same as on this picture

    1. @purplesyringa 5mo

      omg Rust mentioned

  5. @sysoevyarik 5mo

    bruh rust mentioned

  6. @agonyship 5mo

    HOLY SHIT!! IT'S RUST MENTIONED!! ... What does that even mean? I only know Java.

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