PRECEDENT FOR USE OF =

[emjej at uokvax.UUCP.UUCP]

/* Written  8:15 pm  Jul  3, 1986 by MEYER at RADC-TOPS20.ARPA in net.lang.c */
     I know this is going to cause a bit more of a stir here, here goes.

Everybody keeps guessing at the reasons for the use of = for asignment
and == for equality tests.  How about a different angle: how many times
in a program do you assign something versus how many times you compare things?
/* End of text from net.lang.c */

If that's a reasonable principle of programming language design, then
let's see if we can't get Huffman-coding for C keywords in the next ANSI
draft standard.

= for assignment is one of many flaws in C syntax.  Combined with the
absence of a Boolean type, it is a considerable source of errors in C
code.  Lint should warn the user of every occurrence of "if (a = b)".

(I predict that at least one C-worshipper will say "*real* C programmers,
as opposed to quiche-eaters, don't make that mistake."  I think they're
wrong, based on the instances of it I've seen.  Second-order comment
will be "you haven't done a study, so you're not worth bothering with":
I admit that I haven't, but (1) I lack the resources, and (2) it's too
bad the designers of programming languages (and Unix utilities) don't
have to do human factors studies before introducing their products.)

					James Jones