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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!yale!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Reading programs left-to-right.
Message-ID: <103600002@ima.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 23:14:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ima.103600002
Posted: Sun Aug 11 23:14:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 00:37:49 EDT
References: <6571@boring.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:boring:-657100:ima:103600002:000:937
Nf-From: ima!johnl    Aug 11 23:14:00 1985


/* Written  5:18 pm  Aug 10, 1985 by jack@boring in ima:net.lang */
> Something that caught my attention a while ago is the following:
> Why do most programming languages do assignments like
>	  

Well, actually, because Fortran did it that way in 1957, and Algol-58 did it 
that way in 1958, and all algebraic languages since then appear to have been 
designed by people who already knew one or the other.  The Fortran statement 
"A = B + C" roughly translates into the following Cobol (1959): 

    ADD APPLES-ORDERED AND BLANKETS-RECEIVED GIVING CATTLE-DELIVERED.

But since scientific and systems programmers have always had this thing about
how nothing in Cobol could possibly be any good, it never caught on in the
Fortran and Algol world.

John Levine, ima!johnl

PS:  Yes, I know Cobol has the COMPUTE statement which uses Fortran assignment
syntax, but Cobol programmers rarely use it.