PRECEDENT FOR USE OF =

[kjm at ut-ngp.UUCP]

[]

JUNG_E%SITVXA.BITNET at WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Edward Jung) posts the following missive:

>Although this may be read by all, it is targetted for
>Ken "Smurf Shredder" Montgomery at U Texas, self-acknowledged scum.

Member of HASA, you mean.  (BTW, Oleg, do I qualify as a charter member?)

>Why can't C be like everybody else?  Practically every language uses
>the equals sign, "=", to test for equality, not as an assignment operator.

Why should it be like everybody else?  Are you really advocating conformity
at the expense of innovative improvement?

>Everybody who's anybody knows that there is a problem in the use of "="
>for more than one purpose, a la BASIC and FORTRAN.

Ah, yes.  Once again, Usenetters, we have a personal attack.  (Not to
mention a confused missive-poster: "=" is only used for assignment in
FORTRAN.)

>Pascal resolves this
>problem by continuing to use "=" to testing and creating ":=" for
>assignments.  Kernighan and Ritchie, in their infinite wisdom, decide
>instead to use "=" for assignments and to create a new operator, "==" to
>test for equality.  Gee, that must have required brains, the brains of
>a 3 year old.

Oh, boy!  Another personal attack!  You must have been in a maximally
awful mood when you wrote this missive!

>If they had my brains, they would have used Pascal's method.  Better yet,
>they should have let someone else write up C.

Wow!  Rack up three for that man!  (Give him a cigar?  Maybe an exploding one?)


One completely reactionary statement.  Three personal attacks.  Statement Fu.
Operator Fu.  Confusion Fu.  Impressive.  Not positively.  Smurf-shredder says,
"Check it out!"

>Edward Jung, Stevens Institute of Technology
>JUNG_E at SITVXB.BITNET
>
>PS: Ken, I don't like your cat.

This is about as rational an opinion as the rest you've shown so far.

--
The above viewpoints are mine.  They are unrelated to
those of anyone else, including my cat and my employer.

Ken Montgomery  "Shredder-of-hapless-smurfs"
Member of HASA -- Heathen and Atheistic Scum Alliance
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