There is balance and compromise in everything. When we are looking at web applications the key is performance. The more complex the code, additional flag comparisons, etc., the longer it will take to download and, later, execute. Having programmed at the operating system level, I can’t count the number of times I pushed return instructions onto the stack then executed them just to save nanoseconds here and there.

Certainly, it’s a stretch jumping from operating system code to DOM Scripting code but there is definite commonality, i.e., efficiency of execution.

In terms of style and best practices, I agree with you re: multiple exits. In terms of efficiency, IMHO, one must selectively bend the “style and best practices” paridigm, as appropriate.

I own a copy of Jeremy’s book and am working feverishly to master the concepts. Hopefully, one day, I will be able to create web sites as impressive as Jeremy’s personal web site, adactio.com.

I’m sorry, but that is just poor practices to recommend to anybody, especially a newbie to Javascript. This only perpetuates the problem.

I don’t mean to hijack this post and I considered not posting this comment. I could probably go on and on, but I’ll stop here :)

I feel that, from the point of a JavaScript newbie, this way is much more readable and understandable, even though, you’re right – that shouldn’t be common practice and can eventually result in bad programming habits.

Jeremy argues that they (mutlitple exit points) aren’t exactly a bad thing in the book, but I find it difficult to see his logic.