Makes maintenance simpler; any resource cleanup can go through one point and you can see that it is correct when modifications are made. (C++ gives this to you

Makes maintenance simpler; any resource cleanup can go through one point and you can see that it is correct when modifications are made. (C++ gives this to you with destructors, mostly). Also makes it easier to step through code ("I'll just set a breakpoint and see what this function returns..."). I usually advocate using early returns for near boilerplate things like parameter checking, then a single return that does cleanup and exit, with 'goto' encouraged as the proxy for a return-in-the-middle. I think of it as similar to what a C++ compiler does for you. These days I code for maintenance, since someone /is/ going to go in and start adding early returns and subsequent bugs. Plan for code rot.