[450] in Coldmud discussion meeting

Re: assignment, while (etc) (fwd)

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sat Sep 24 15:33:26 1994 )

To: coldstuff@MIT.EDU
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 14:00:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: colinm@ozemail.com.au (Colin McCormack)
Reply-To: colinm@ozemail.com.au

> < Original quote by Colin McCormack:
> <> It strikes me that one of C--'s features is its similarity to C++.
> <
> <> Hence, assignment `=' (should be an expression)
> <>        equality `==' (if you can't tell the difference, learn to program)
> <>        while (abomination) { abomination } (abomination) - syntax sucks rocks.
> <
> < If nothing else, I share the same attitude.  It doesn't quite make sense
> < to take a language called C-- and make it like pascal, or worse, add a
> < weird conditional structure.  If anything, C-- should mimic C and C++.

[...]

> [...] changing the
> assignment operator from '=' to ':=' in order to cause less confusion (NOT to
> make it closer to pascal--that is the silliest idea I've ever seen Colin come
> up with)

Well, see, I didn't come up with that idea... Brandon misread <> as >
and misattributed it to me.  That's similar to mistaking = for ==.

I just can't bring myself to see the confusion as a inherent in 
the character `>' and I don't see how making it ':>' would avoid any confusion.

People writing programs just have to be careful.

Colin.