The wonders of C (=/==)
Norman Diamond
ndiamond at watdaisy.UUCP
Sat Mar 30 03:54:07 AEST 1985
> The "save keystrokes" assumption comes from p17 of K&R:
>
> Since assignment is about twice as frequent as equality testing
> in typical C programs, it's appropriate that the operator be
> half as long.
>
> ...which I never was tempted to take as anything but a cute little quip,
> and perhaps a subtle dig at PASCAL. In these latter days, it would
> no doubt be postpended with a ":-)".
It may have been a subtle dig at ALGOL, but the inventors of C and PASCAL
probably knew very little about each other at the time they made such
decisions. In fact I think C predates PASCAL by a year or two, but don't
know how to tell for sure.
--
Norman Diamond
UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra}!watmath!watdaisy!ndiamond
CSNET: ndiamond%watdaisy at waterloo.csnet
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"Opinions are those of the keyboard, and do not reflect on me or higher-ups."
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