Re: proposal for new assignment operators

[18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)]

"Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" <ve3wwg@cogeco.ca> wrote in message news:<3EF9CD5F.6030608@cogeco.ca>...
> Frank J. Lhota wrote:
> > I would prefer the Icon notation, where the operator prefixes the ":="
> > assignment symbol, e.g.
> > 
> >     first +:= margin
> >     last -:= margin
> > 
> >     # "||" is the Icon catenation operation, so this adds suffix to the end
> > of word
> >     word ||:= suffix
> > 
> > This fits in rather well with Ada, and poses no problem with division; "/:="
> > does in-place division, "/=" tests for inequality.
> 
> For my $0.02 Canadian, all of this fuss is fuss with very
> little payback. In fact, all it will succeed in doing if
> it gets accepted (which it won't AFAICS), is obfuscating
> Ada code a bit more than it used to be. That is one of many
> reasons it will never get accepted.

I'd like to know how count :+ 1 is any more obfuscated than count :=
count + 1. It looks simpler to me. And that applies all the more when
the variable name is longer. Also, A += B looks a lot cleaner to me
than Add_Matrix ( Into=>A, From=>B ). Ask any mathematician or MATLAB
user which they prefer -- to read *or* to write.

> People keep claiming that it is not proposed for ease of typing, but
> if you read through the thread, the theme that keeps emerging is
> that it makes the code easier to write (vs easier to read). Just
> give it up folks. It ain't goin' to be. If my input is included,
> it will be against any such proposal.

That's a crock. I have never once before this post said anything about
ease of typing, nor has anyone else that I recall. But now that you
mention it, it *is* easier to type too. That's just the icing on the
cake. And please spare me the standard baloney that says "easy to type
= difficult to read." Sometimes that's true, and sometimes it's not.
In this case, it isn't.

As for your arrogant "It ain't goin' to be" attitude, you may be
right, but if you are, it won't be for any rational reason. It'll just
be good old fashioned hard-headedness and stubbornness.

I can only hope that the influentual people behind Ada are more
open-minded than some of the regulars on this newsgroup. If not, I'm
afraid some of you regulars are destined to be big fish in an
ever-shrinking pond.