RE: Is this the Free-Format that we asked for?

["Shaw, David" <dshaw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I posted my opinions on the forum, here's the text for any of you who can't
or won't go there (I sympathize with the won't, I hate their forum
software):
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I write a lot of neatly-structured, but complex, CL, so I get to use the '+'
continuation character a lot. Is that better or worse than having to type an
end of statement character? Well, at least ';' doesn't require holding the
shift key down. Excluding my RPG code, I've written a lot more code in
languages which require an end of statement than in languages that require
continuations. I really don't think it's a big deal either way. Once you get
used to it, you won't really notice anymore! Get over it! 

GOTO's are a little different. Although I can't remember the last time I
used one in RPG (at least 5 years), it's a little disturbing to see them
disallowed. There are times when doing maintenance on an existing program
where inserting a GOTO is the simplest, cleanest way to make a modification
(particularly to vendor code which doesn't meet my structuring standards). I
submit that attempts by language designers to save us programmers from
ourselves are patronizing and misguided. IBM, please include GOTO. Thanks.
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