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

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"Opinions are those of the keyboard, and do not reflect on me or higher-ups."



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