Other 'significant' blanks

[Kevin Martin]

Should a compiler allow blanks between the 'op' and the '=' in an
'op=' operation? e.g. should
   a | = 4;
be legal?
What about other multi-character operators (like ++)? In this case,
blanks are to be used to prevent ambiguity, i.e.
 a - -- b    and     a -- - b    are both un-ambiguous. But if a blank
is allowed between the two '-'s, these expressions both mean the same
things (plural).

There seems to be no good reason to allow such a blank, and for certain
operators (such as --) allowing a blank would create (more) ambiguity.
Perhaps the compiler which allows such blanks should just be called buggy.
                      Kevin Martin, UofW Software Development Group