Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
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From: Dave@Yost.COM (Dave Yost)
Subject: Re: Could this be a BAD thing?
Message-ID: <yostCy3M96.Kon@netcom.com>
Sender: yost@netcom.com (Dave Yost)
Reply-To: Dave@Yost.COM (Dave Yost)
Organization: Dave Yost's house
References: <37kuhe$p4l@hobbes.cc.uga.edu> <DLW.94Oct16184349@butterball.odi.com> <37sd70$4sl@nntp.Stanford.EDU> <mhamburg-191094152002@macb306.mv.us.adobe.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 1994 23:51:06 GMT
Lines: 44

In article <mhamburg-191094152002@macb306.mv.us.adobe.com>,
Mark Hamburg <mhamburg@mv.us.adobe.com> wrote:
>In article <37sd70$4sl@nntp.Stanford.EDU>, amitp@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Amit
>Patel) wrote:
>
>> I think the problem is that '=' is used for different things in
>> different languages.  ':=' says "assignment" (just because languages
>> don't use := for comparison), '==' says "comparison" (due to C's
>> popularity), and '=' can be either, depending on the language.
>> 
>> C's mistake is that both = and == are valid in expressions, so people
>> moving from another language often use = instead of == for comparison.
>> I don't know the Dylan syntax yet, but my understanding is that := or
>> <- is used for assignment, and = is used for comparison.  If so, then
>> we will have the opposite problem -- people moving from C will use =
>> for assignment instead of :=.
>> 
>> I think the way to avoid all of this would be to use := for assignment
>> and == for comparison, and don't allow = to be used in expressions.
>> (Perhaps = can be used only in initialization.)  People don't seem to
>> get := and == confused -- just (:= and =) or (= and ==).
>> 
>> 
>> 	My opinions only,
>> 
>> 	Amit
>
>Seconded.
>
>Mark

Thirded.

> From: "John Lacey" <johnl@cs.indiana.edu>
> P.S. (define x 5)
>      (set! x 7)
>
>      Hmm. The whole problem disappears, doesn't it?

Seconded.

-- 
  Dave Yost
      @    .COM
