Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site boring.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!mcvax!boring!jack
From: jack@boring.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Reading programs left-to-right.
Message-ID: <6581@boring.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Aug-85 17:04:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: boring.6581
Posted: Sat Aug 17 17:04:49 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 08:36:48 EDT
References: <6571@boring.UUCP> <10984@rochester.UUCP> <597@mmintl.UUCP>
Reply-To: jack@boring.UUCP (Jack Jansen)
Organization: AMOEBA project, CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 20
Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax.LOCAL


It seems that the most common reply is either "Cuz Fortan and
mathematicians do it that way" or "Then it's easier to find the
places where a variable is assigned".

I do agree on the first argument, although I don't think it's
really a *good* reason, but not on the second.
Just think of scanf("%d",&foo); i=foo++; while(bar)foo=getc();
to show a few C examples.
Scanning the left margin to find places where a variable is changed
is very dangerous, since you'll miss a lot, and, moreover, it's
probably the most interesting changes that you miss.

Also, I just thought of another advantage of righthandside assignments:
You don't need the funny left associative operators anymore.
Also, think of the joys of being able to say
	if( fopen("foobar","r") => infile == NULL ) scream();
-- 
	Jack Jansen, jack@mcvax.UUCP
	The shell is my oyster.