From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,f51e93dacd9c7fca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-06-21 21:54:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: status of Ada STL? Date: 21 Jun 2002 21:54:39 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: References: <4519e058.0206170611.260a3951@posting.google.com> <4519e058.0206180630.b6ef8cd@posting.google.com> <4519e058.0206190635.48fe03a5@posting.google.com> <3D11C9ED.4010709@telepath.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.194.87.148 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1024721679 21622 127.0.0.1 (22 Jun 2002 04:54:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 22 Jun 2002 04:54:39 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:26588 Date: 2002-06-22T04:54:39+00:00 List-Id: 18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ) wrote in message news:... > Let's see, what are the most widely used languages today? How about > Cobol, C, C++, Java, Fortran, Perl, and Ada. And lo and behold, every > one of them except Ada uses "=" for assignment (come to think of it, > doesn't BASIC use "=" too?). > > Somebody ought to do a study. It seems that you can almost predict the > popularity of a language based on whether or not it uses "=" for > assignment. It seems that all the major languages use "=", and all the > minor languages use something else. I would like to update this post. In addition to Cobol, Basic, C, C++, Java, Fortran, Perl, and Python, I've also found a couple of other significant languages that use "=" for assignment: Matlab and Mathematica. Matlab is widely used by engineers for vector/matrix computations, control system design, and lots of other stuff. Mathematica is a very sophisticated symbolic math system. Actually, Mathematica uses a combination of ":=" and "=", but basic variable assignment is done with "=". Why is that significant? Well, suffice it to say that the authors of Mathematica know a thing or two about Math. And the fact that they used "=" for assignment puts to rest the notion that such usage somehow violates basic mathematical conventions. It is the final nail in the coffin of the notion that ":=" is somehow more appropriate. If "=" is "good enough" for Mathematica, it's good enough for Ada too!