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Computers can do that repeatedly and reliably with even (hundreds of) thousands of discarded states. People reading code and trying to understand what's actually in play at line umptyfratz of function iGottaGetThisFixedNow(), not so much.

In the end, I'm not disagreeing with early exits per se, just that over time they can make it more difficult to understand function because assumptions about state have to adjust as a maintainer goes through the code. Those assumptions may have been crystal-clear to the writer originally but how many times is the original writer the only maintainer?




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