Editing Structured programming (section)

{{Short description|Programming paradigm based on control flow}}'''Structured programming''' is a [[programming paradigm]] aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a [[computer program]] by making specific disciplined use of the structured [[control flow]] constructs of selection ([[Conditional (computer programming)|if/then/else]]) and repetition ([[While loop|while]] and [[For loop|for]]), [[Block (programming)|block structures]], and [[subroutines]].

It emerged in the late 1950s with the appearance of the [[ALGOL 58]] and [[ALGOL 60]] programming languages,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clark|first1=Leslie B. Wilson, Robert G.|last2=Robert|first2=Clark|title=Comparative programming languages|date=2000|publisher=Addison-Wesley|location=Harlow, England|isbn=9780201710120 |page=20|edition=3rd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bVSjoO8f2fMC&q=Comparative+Programming+Languages&pg=PA20 |access-date=25 November 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126050203/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bVSjoO8f2fMC&lpg=PR11&ots=zItCa2GxG6&dq=Comparative%20Programming%20Languages&lr&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q=Comparative%20Programming%20Languages&f=false|archive-date=26 November 2015}}</ref> with the latter including support for block structures. Contributing factors to its popularity and widespread acceptance, at first in academia and later among practitioners, include the discovery of what is now known as the [[structured program theorem]] in 1966,{{sfn|Böhm|Jacopini|1966}} and the publication of the influential "[[Go To Statement Considered Harmful]]" open letter in 1968 by Dutch computer scientist [[Edsger W. Dijkstra]], who coined the term "structured programming".{{sfn|Dijkstra|1968|p=147|ps=, "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."}}

Structured programming is most frequently used with deviations that allow for clearer programs in some particular cases, such as when [[exception handling]] has to be performed.