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From: Bob Duff <invalid@invalid.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Taming The Switch-Statement
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:38:38 -0400
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Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> writes:

> Names used for loops have a lighter-weight syntax:
>
>     LOOP_NAME:
>     while condition loop
>         -- ...
>     end loop;

That's a syntax error. In Ada, if you put a loop name at the top of the
loop, you are required to repeat it at the bottom, like this:

    LOOP_NAME: while condition loop
        ...
    end loop LOOP_NAME;

If there's an "exit LOOP_NAME;" in there, it's pretty clear which
loop it's jumping out of, AND where it's jumping to.

> I can't think of a better syntax for loop names than "NAME:" (used
> by several other languages), but in C that syntax is already
> taken for goto labels.

Agreed.

But in current C (before adding the named-loop feature),
and in Ada, and in many other languages, a label serves
as a warning: One or more gotos jump here. That's useful
information.

This new feature of C seems to lose that benefit, which
is unfortunate. But I think the "while LOOP_NAME..."
syntax is less readable than "LOOP_NAME: while...",
as you said.

So if it were up to me, I wouldn't add named loops to C in
either proposed syntax. The "goto" is good enough for
jumping out of nested loops.

- Bob