Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!taumet!steve
From: steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Assignment in test: OK?
Message-ID: <456@taumet.com>
Date: 18 Sep 90 14:51:22 GMT
References: <1990Sep12.194753.9808@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu> <3749@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <1990Sep13.230805.19720@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu> <14316:Sep1511:00:2390@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1990Sep17.220836.11501@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Organization: Taumetric Corporation, San Diego
Lines: 21

bruce@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Bruce Worden) writes:

>In article <14316:Sep1511:00:2390@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

>... I was assuming that people writing `if(x = y)' 
>and meaning `if(x == y)' were just making some mechanical error.  It has 
>been brought to my attention, however, that the problem may be caused by a 
>confusion of the `=' symbol in C with that of some other language, by 
>someone who regularly programs in multiple languages.

I sometimes switch between Pascal and C/C++ several times in one day, and
it is a bit confusing.  It isn't that I don't "know" (or that I "forget")
the different versions of assignment and comparison operators.  It is
more a question of "shifting gears" fully.  I find it is like switching
between text editors, or between similar musical instruments.  Habits
carry over, and it takes a little time (minutes or hours) to fully
move into the new mode.  The problem is worse if I am tired or
distracted.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com