Dijkstra: Go To Statement Considered Harmful

What changed

Argued that unrestricted go-to statements obstruct useful coordinates for reasoning about program progress and advocated structured control constructs that preserve intelligible program structure.

Scientific scope

The record is the exact 1968 Communications of the ACM letter. It is an argument about unrestricted control transfer, not a proof that every use of a jump is erroneous; later structured-programming methods and languages remain separate.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is the exact 1968 Communications of the ACM letter. It is an argument about unrestricted control transfer, not a proof that every use of a jump is erroneous; later structured-programming methods and languages remain separate.

Contributors

• Edsger W. Dijkstra · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• CWI repository record for Dijkstra’s go-to letter
• Crossref record for Dijkstra’s go-to letter

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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