Precedent for use of =

Tainter tainter at ihlpg.UUCP
Wed Jul 9 03:58:32 AEST 1986


> In article <1645 at brl-smoke.ARPA> JUNG_E%SITVXA.BITNET at WISCVM.WISC.EDU writes:
> It is too late for C to be like anything else; it is like C.  Besides,
> if it were exactly like (say) Pascal, it would *be* Pascal.  There is
> room for many languages.
> >Practically every language uses the equals sign, "=", to test for
> >equality, not as an assignment operator.
> Perhaps you know more languages than I.  Let me list those whose
> syntax I remember, and count `= for assigment' vs. `= for equality'
> (or both).
> 	Assignment		Equality
> 	----------		--------
> 				Algol
> 				APL
> 	awk
> 						BASIC (really both)
> 	FORTRAN
> 				Icon
> 						Lisp (neither really)
> 				Mesa
> 				Pascal
> 	Snobol
> Well, 5 to 3 in favour of `= for equality', though APL and Mesa are
> perhaps special cases: back-arrow is not available for assignment on
> my H19.
ADD:
	Assignment		Equality
	----------		---------
				mathematics
				logic
> -- 
> In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 1516)
> UUCP:	seismo!umcp-cs!chris
> CSNet:	chris at umcp-cs		ARPA:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu

--j.a.tainter



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