[queensnake]

It looks to me like it could be an assignment to const, or, a copy vs a non-copy - it’s not obvious at all. I’m sure: ‘?=‘ was fought over and rejected, but that’s what I’d have expected conditional assignment to look like.

[xaedes]

It is not "conditional assignment" tho. It is an assignment which returns the assigned value. You can use it in conditions, but you can also use it elsewhere.