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Non-structured programming (a.k.a. unstructured programming) is theprogramming paradigm that describes thestate-of-the-art of programming before thestructured programming paradigm was envisioned and involves the use of thegoto statement forcontrol flow such as selection (i.e.if/then/else) and iteration (i.e.while andfor).
In general, the use of goto, particularly for selection and iteration, is criticized for producing unreadable,spaghetti code in the 1968 open letterGo To Statement Considered Harmful by Dutch computer scientistEdsger W. Dijkstra,[1] who coined the termstructured programming.[citation needed]
Anyprogramming language that provides goto can be used to write unstructured code. Notable languages that rely primarily if not exclusively on goto for control flow includeJOSS,FOCAL,TELCOMP, anyassembly language,batch file, and early versions ofBASIC,Fortran,COBOL, andMUMPS.
The unbridled use of the go to statement has as an immediate consequence that it becomes terribly hard to find a meaningful set of coordinates in which to describe the process progress. ... The go to statement as it stands is just too primitive, it is too much an invitation to make a mess of one's program.
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