JavaScript: The Good Parts

switch Fall Through

The switch statement was modeled after the FORTRAN IV computed go to statement. Each case falls through into the next case unless you explicitly disrupt the flow.

Someone wrote to me once suggesting that JSLint should give a warning when a case falls through into another case. He pointed out that this is a very common source of errors, and it is a difficult error to see in the code. I answered that that was all true, but that the benefit of compactness obtained by falling through more than compensated for the chance of error.

The next day, he reported that there was an error in JSLint. It was misidentifying an error. I investigated, and it turned out that I had a case that was falling through. In that moment, I achieved enlightenment. I no longer use intentional fall throughs. That discipline makes it much easier to find the unintentional fall throughs.

The worst features of a language aren't the features that are obviously dangerous or useless. Those are easily avoided. The worst features are the attractive nuisances, the features that are both useful and dangerous.