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From: mhamburg@mv.us.adobe.com (Mark Hamburg)
Subject: Re: Could this be a BAD thing?
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Date: Wed, 19 Oct 1994 22:17:58 GMT
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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
