Re: += in ada

[18k11tm001@sneakemail.com (Russ)]

Georg Bauhaus <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> wrote in message news:<bmjfri$731$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>...
> Russ <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> wrote:
> :> > > On 2003-10-07, Russ <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> wrote:

> :> > > > Repeat after me: Augmented assignment is available and WIDELY USED in
> :> > > > C, C++, Java, Perl, and Python, perhaps the 5 most popular
> :> > > > general-purpose programming languages ever designed.

> Interesting. So programming languages are obviously chosen because
> there is some form of augmented assinment in the language?
> Why do people choose Visual Basic, or Fortran, or Delphi?

No, that's not what I said. What I am suggesting is that some
programmers might be turned off by a programming language that does
not provide augmented assignment operators.

Suppose you were out shopping for a new car. Would you say to
yourself, "I will only consider cars that are equipped with visors."
Of course not, because you expect all cars to have visors by now.

Now suppose you are test driving a car. You pull out of the driveway,
and the sun hits your eyes and blinds you. You reach for the visor,
but none is available. "WTF?", you say, "No friggin' visor?

So the salesman in the passenger seat says, "You don't *need* a visor.
All you have to do is put your hand in front of your eyes. What the
heck is so hard about that? Oh, and if that is too much for you, you
lazy bum, you can use some duct tape and cardboard to make your own
visor. There's nothing to it"

Would you buy the car? I doubt it.

So it is with augmented assignment operators (or whatever you want to
call them). They are a basic convenience that a modern general-purpose
programming language is simply expected to have.

As for Visual Basic, yes it is popular, but I hope you aren't
suggesting that it is a good model for programming languages. I
suspect that most VB programmers are clueless about the alternatives
(and also think Linux is too complicated to use).