Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!tkou02.enet.dec.com!jit345!diamond From: diamond@jit345.swstokyo.dec.com (Norman Diamond) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: Documenting OO Systems Message-ID: <1991Mar27.082831.28093@tkou02.enet.dec.com> Date: 27 Mar 91 08:28:31 GMT References: <9103070342.AA07462@.nextserver.cs.stthomas.edu.cs.stthomas.edu ..> <1991Mar22.120946.1@happy.colorado.edu> <299@orbit.gtephx.UUCP> <1991Mar25.145441.1@happy.colorado.edu> Sender: news@tkou02.enet.dec.com (USENET News System) Reply-To: diamond@jit345.enet@tkou02.enet.dec.com (Norman Diamond) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan , Tokyo Lines: 23 In article jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) writes: [attribution deleted by Mr. Showalter]: >>So, is it simply convention that makes us prefer "a := a + 1" to "a++"? After >>all, I never saw anything even vaguely like "a := a + 1" in any math or >>science course, so I can't believe I had any prior familiarity with it. > >Huh? Did you never see?: > 7 = 6 + 1 [etc.] >I saw stuff like that all the way from elementary school onwards. What I >NEVER saw was: > P++ Exactly. Lots of us have seen lots of equals signs, and learn to associate equals signs with equality. We didn't learn to associate equals signs with ASSIGNMENT (and possible inequality) until we learned Fortran, which might or might not have been in elementary school. And most of us didn't see either colons followed by equals sings, or double plus signs, in elementary school. Unless we learned Algol then; but we certainly didn't see them in math classes. -- Norman Diamond diamond@tkov50.enet.dec.com If this were the company's opinion, I wouldn't be allowed to post it.