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by actuator 2107 days ago
If assignment is what we are concerned about, we should introduce something like `x := x + 1`.
1 comments
jghn 2107 days ago
why `:=` and not `<-`?

The `<-` in R comes from the APL keyboard, and that glyph is an assignment in APL. It wasn't just some crazy invention from Ross & Robert or even John Chambers.

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_kst_ 2107 days ago
Is "x<-3" an assignment to x or a comparison of x to -3?

The same problem led early C (pre-K&R1) to change its compound assignment operators from "=op" to "op=". In early C, "x = -3" assigned the value -3 to x (as it does now), but "x=-3" meant "x = x - 3" (now written "x-=3").

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actuator 2107 days ago
Left side assignment is still used to us, from maths and most other programming languages, so it keeps things familar.

The `:=` has been in use in other langs like MySQL

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