292: goto

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 20:33, 22 August 2012 by 96.237.177.60 (talk) (Created page with "{{comic | number = 292 | date = July 20, 2007 | title = goto | image = goto.png | imagesize = | titletext = Neal Stephenson thinks it's cute to name his label...")
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goto
Neal Stephenson thinks it's cute to name his labels 'dengo'
Title text: Neal Stephenson thinks it's cute to name his labels 'dengo'

Explanation

goto is a construct found in many computer languages that causes control flow to go from one place in program to another, without returning. Once common in computer programming, its popularity diminished in the 60's and 70's as focus on structured programming became the norm. Edsger Dijkstra 's article Go To Statement Considered Harmful in particular contributed to goto's decline.

Often people learning programming are told goto is bad and should be avoided, but are not given a reason. In this case, Cueball can see no harm in using goto to avoid rewriting much of his program. As a result, he is attacked by a velociraptor. Velociraptor attacks are a running joke (and fear) often expressed in xkcd. The humor derives from the fact that a velociraptor attack is an unlikely thing to happen after using a goto statement.

The title text refers to Neal Stephenson, an author of cyberpunk novels. A label is used in many programming languages to refer to a point in a program that a goto instruction can jump to. The joke is that 'dengo' sounds like a person saying "then go", as in "go to, then go".