'for loops', 'while loops', and 'do while loops' are all specific cases of generic loops. Why not just have a generic loop structure that can be customized? while(true) loops can be used as generic loops.
-The crux of all loops is an implicit 'continue' statement at the end, and a way to escape.
-At any time you can branch to the top using 'continue'
-At any time you can branch out of the loop using 'break'
For readability:
-comment at the top of the loop what is going on with the loop, which should be done anyways.
-highlight branches so they stand out with a label left justified, like this (it would be nice if IDEs did something like this automatically)
while(true)
{
stuff;
/*con*/ stuff; if(stuff){continue;}
stuff;
/*brk*/ stuff; if(stuff){break;}
stuff;
}
I find generic loops to be more readable than for-loops as you see exactly where an increment occurs and exactly where break check or a continue check occur.
Breaking out of outer loops
There should also be a way to continue and break in reference to an outer loop from within an inner loop, avoiding having to use a variable flag to pass this info between the 2 loops, or having to use a 'goto' statement which many want to avoid the like the plague. For example:
while(true)
{
/*continue 2 goes here*/
stuff;
while(true)
{
stuff;
/*con2*/ if(stuff){continue 2;}
stuff;
/*brk2*/ if(stuff){break 2;}
stuff;
}
stuff;
}
/*break 2 goes here*/
Easy to replace For and Do While loops
//for loop equivalency
i=0;while(1)
{
if (i>10) {break;}
//do stuff
i+=1;
}
//do while equivalency
while(1)
{
//do stuff
if (something is true) {break;}
}
//while equivalency (simply moves the check to the first line)
while(1)
{
if(something is true){break;}
//do stuff
}
//if equivalency
while(whatever)
{
stuff;
break;
}
