A coworker of mine once referred to := as the 'Zoidberg operator', and the name has stuck with me since.
hehe, you are right, I can only see it now tho
Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
61–70 of 367 posts
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#62The '=' sign is used because after that statement the variable will indeed have equality with the r-value. Coincidentally in async languages like Verilog there is a another assignment operator '<=' which means that the variable won't take the new value until the next clock cycle (or more explicitly the next evaluation of the process block). '=' exists also and has the same meaning as with traditional languages.
By that logic,
a Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ditto. Fun fact: various dialects of BASIC let you optionally put LET before your assignment statements. So the following are equivalent: X = 10 LET X = 10
Wait...LET was optional? Auigh! Whole months of my childhood, wasted!
Depended on the dialect. Whatever we had on my first PC as a kid, it was mandatory. Later, in HS, when we used BASIC for a first CS course, it was optional.
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#64> Prolog came out the same year as C and popularized logic programming, and you can sort of fake assignment with cuts.
Can anyone explain to me what this is supposed to mean? (I know Prolog, I understand cuts very well. But I don't know what the author means here.)
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#65The '=' sign is used because after that statement the variable will indeed have equality with the r-value. Coincidentally in async languages like Verilog there is a another assignment operator '<=' which means that the variable won't take the new value until the next clock cycle (or more explicitly the next evaluation of the process block). '=' exists also and has the same meaning as with traditional languages.
By that logic, a Should set a to the minimum of a and 1. I.e. after that statement the variable will indeed be less than or equal to the RHS.
Languages borrowing the syntax don't need to follow its logical consistency. I just thought it was an interesting anecdote.
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#66because in math it means assignment. y = mx+b That is an assignment. There is also a math symbol that specifically designates equivalence.
it's actually a relation (ie equality) between two expressions. it is a logical assertion, not an action.
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#67A coworker of mine once referred to := as the 'Zoidberg operator', and the name has stuck with me since.
Cannot unsee.
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#68Bcpl still exists in 2018?
Here's a PDF about running BCPL on a Raspberry Pi: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/bcpl4raspi.pdf It's aimed at teaching programming to 10 year olds no prior experience. One of the first examples is implementing RSA.
Implementing a cryptosystem is one of the first things for 10 year olds with no prior programming experience???? That seems intense compared to Scratch, etc.
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've heard of this before; I'd love to watch it if you have a link!
I'd also want to see the link, if available!
This is from a few years ago, my first time giving it, and I've never had the courage to actually watch it, so ymmv.
Re: Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
#70The length of symbols should roughly be negatively correlated with its frequency. Since in procedural language, assignment is a much more common operation than equality check, it is reasonable to favor "=" over ":=" or even "<-".
So you have a key with the assignment operator on.