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From: Bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: on changing paradigm of assign call
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2024 11:03:03 +0100
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On 02/09/2024 02:45, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 16:15:37 +0200, fir wrote:
> 
>>    int x = foo()
>>
>> annoying is especially this "=" sign as this is not quite assignment
>> imo
> 
> The original symbol as used in Algol-like languages was “:=”. While C
> copies quite a few features from the Algol family, it made the
> questionable decision to shorten the assignment operator to “=”,
> ostensibly to save typing. Which meant they had to invent a different
> symbol, “==”, to denote an equality comparison.

The original symbol in FORTRAN, which came before Algol, was "=" for 
assignment (and .EQ. for equality)

BASIC, which came long before C, used "=" for both. It could do that 
because it didn't allow assignment inside an expression.

(Meanwhile I use '=' for equality, for defining new named entities, and 
for compile-time assignments. Runtime assignments used ':=':

    static int a = 100      # inside function
    int b := 200

The line is blurred a little in dynamic code when some '=' assignments 
need to be done as execution starts.

In C though it gets confusing using the same symbol for each;

    static int a = 100;     // Initialised once only (and likely before
                            // execution starts)
    int b = 200;            // Initialised every time it is encountered)