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.