considered harmful

( adj.)

   [very   common]   Edsger   W.  Dijkstra's  note  in  the  March  1968
   Communications  of  the ACM, Goto Statement Considered Harmful, fired
   the   first  salvo  in  the  structured  programming  wars  (text  at
   http://www.acm.org/classics/). As it turns out, the title under which
   the  letter  appeared was actually supplied by CACM's editor, Niklaus
   Wirth.   Amusingly,   the   ACM  considered  the  resulting  acrimony
   sufficiently  harmful  that  it  will  (by policy) no longer print an
   article  taking  so  assertive  a position against a coding practice.
   (Years  afterwards,  a  contrary  view  was  uttered in a CACM letter
   called,  inevitably,  `Goto considered harmful' considered harmful''.
   In  the  ensuing  decades,  a large number of both serious papers and
   parodies   have  borne  titles  of  the  form  X  considered  Y.  The
   structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realization
   that  both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a
   persistent  minor  in-joke  (the  `considered silly' found at various
   places in this lexicon is related).

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {COME FROM}{fall through}{religion of CHI}]