Excerpted from message dated 01-18-97, Thomas Seeling to Jonathan De
Boyne Pollard:

 JdBP> if (!terminating) {
 JdBP> } else {

TS>I don't think it is good style to handle both cases of a boolean
  >decision and begin with the negated part. Probably the compiler can
  >optimize it, but I wouldn't trust this :)

TS>if (terminating) {}
  >else {}

TS>is clearer, although your style fits the causality better :-)

Hi Thomas--

    Shades of the Dijkstra "goto is harmful" fallacy and his
"more lucid
code!"

    I learned many years ago that, for best performance, one should
always put the most likely case first (even if it is the negative case).
How can an optimizer know which case is the most likely?  I believe that
one uses comments to make things clearer if necessary.

    Regards,

          --Murray

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 * MR/2 2.25 #120 * Which direction is forward?

--- Maximus/2 2.02