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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!boring!steven
From: steven@boring.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Reading programs left-to-right.
Message-ID: <6572@boring.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 17:50:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: boring.6572
Posted: Mon Aug 12 17:50:04 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 02:06:18 EDT
References: <6571@boring.UUCP>
Reply-To: steven@boring.UUCP (Steven Pemberton)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 24
Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax.LOCAL
In article <6571@boring.UUCP> jack@mcvax.UUCP (Jack Jansen) writes:
> Something that caught my attention a while ago is the following:
>
> Why do most programming languages do assignments like
>
[rather than]
>
...
> I remember seeing a language with the second type assigments once,
> but it hasn't seemed to catch on.
I've used a couple of languages that assigned that way round. But what about
COBOL? Not caught on, you say?
Might I also point out that the new language B (not the predecessor of C -
no flames please), developed just down the corridor from you, also has the
this type of assignment?
Steven Pemberton, CWI, Amsterdam; steven@mcvax.UUCP
(Well, *someone* had to say it.)
P.S. Actually I can think of a reason: if assignments were the other way
round, you'd have your Lvalues on the right, and your Rvalues on the left;
clearly undesirable :-).