Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Assignment in test: OK?
Message-ID: <1990Sep19.164308.722@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <14316:Sep1511:00:2390@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1990Sep17.220836.11501@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu> <18063@haddock.ima.isc.com> <1335:Sep1901:50:0490@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 90 16:43:08 GMT

In article <1335:Sep1901:50:0490@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
>> `:=' is almost as clumsy to type as that
>>   stupid regexp notation `\( \)'.
>
>I agree! That's why Q lets you use = in 99% of the cases where you'd use
>it in C. You only have to resort to := when you want to use the assigned
>value in an expression.

So why not just insist on proper parenthesization and testing of the value
in an expression -- that is, the clean and readable

	if ((c = getchar()) != '\0')

rather than the cryptic and confusing

	if (c = getchar())

and leave the operator alone?  Then you have the further bonus that it's
not a new language, just a fussier compiler.
-- 
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