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POUseful alternative control structures?
 

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    <p>Sometimes when I am programming, I find that some particular control structure would be very useful to me, but is not directly available in my programming language. I think my most common desire is something like a "split while" (I have no idea what to actually call this):</p> <pre><code>{ foo(); } split_while( condition ) { bar(); } </code></pre> <p>The semantics of this code would be that <code>foo()</code> is always run, and then the condition is checked. If true, then <code>bar()</code> is run and we go back to the first block (thus running <code>foo()</code> again, etc). Thanks to <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/eckxw/what_are_some_useful_alternative_control/c17340u" rel="noreferrer">a comment by reddit user zxqdms</a>, I have learned that Donald E. Knuth writes about this structure in his paper <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.103.6084" rel="noreferrer">"Structured programming with <code>go to</code> statements"</a> (see page 279).</p> <p><strong>What alternative control structures do you think are a useful way of organizing computation?</strong></p> <p>My goal here is to give myself and others new ways of thinking about structuring code, in order to improve chunking and reasoning.</p> <p><em>Note</em>: I'm not asking about how to <em>generalize</em> all possible control structures, whether by using <code>jne</code>, <code>if</code>/<code>goto</code>, Lisp macros, continuations, monads, combinators, quarks, or whatever else. I'm asking what <em>specializations</em> are useful in describing code.</p>
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    1. USskaffman
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      1. USStuart Golodetz
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    1. CORe: your example. If the `undo` parts are just intended as examples, then what you have there is not a very "alternative" control structure. It's called *exception handling* and has existed (although not necessarily under that name) for almost as long as programming itself. If you *do* intend the `undo` s to be part of the semantics, then it's a *transaction* and isn't very alternative, either.
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      1. USJörg W Mittag
    2. CONote to confused readers: I have edited my question to emphasize my question and de-emphasize particular examples. In particular, I removed one example which the preceding comment references.
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      1. USA. Rex
    3. CONeeds to be community wiki to avoid closing for subjectivity (no real answer).
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      1. USMatchu
 

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