Structured Programming

There are several important directions in programming that have emerged over the years. One is the move to structured programming. First articulated in 1958 by Edsger Dijkstra, structured programming refers to the idea that programs should have a carefully thought-out (and documented) structure. This is really common sense, of course, but computer programming was developed over time by a lot of hard-pressed (harassed might be a better word) individuals who generally built on what went before. The most serious problem with contemporary programming techniques, in the view of Dijkstra and his colleagues, was the use of so-called "spaghetti code" in which the logical flow of a program meandered all over the place, leaving the ...

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