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 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-31 13:34:46 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!newshub.sdsu.edu!newspeer.cts.com!galanthis.cts.com!127.0.0.1.MISMATCH!not-for-mail Sender: kst@king.cts.com Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <87n15lxzzv.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> From: Keith Thompson Date: 31 Jul 2001 13:34:46 -0700 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3 NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.68.192.180 X-Trace: 996611686 nntp.cts.com 285 209.68.192.180 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10892 Date: 2001-07-31T13:34:46-07:00 List-Id: Florian Weimer writes: > Russ Paielli <18k11tm001@sneakemail.com> writes: [...] > > What's so great about ":="? Why not use "$=" or "%="? > > ':=' was already used to denote assignent even before programming > languages existed. Is that true? I would have assumed that the concept of assignment didn't exist, or at least wasn't very widespread, before programming languages existed. Equality assertions using "=" are far more common in mathematics. I had thought that assignment was originally indicated with an arrow (like "<-", but a single character), then changed to ":=" because there was no arrow character in the character set being used at the time (an ancestor of ASCII). This probably goes back to Algol, perhaps earlier. (If I weren't so lazy, I'd look it up in my History of Programming Languages book; perhaps I will later if this thread doesn't die out.) -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@cts.com San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> Cxiuj via bazo apartenas ni.