Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: $Revision: 1.6.2.16 $; site ima.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!yale!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.UUCP Newsgroups: net.lang Subject: Re: Reading programs left-to-right. Message-ID: <103600002@ima.UUCP> Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 23:14:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ima.103600002 Posted: Sun Aug 11 23:14:00 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 00:37:49 EDT References: <6571@boring.UUCP> Lines: 21 Nf-ID: #R:boring:-657100:ima:103600002:000:937 Nf-From: ima!johnl Aug 11 23:14:00 1985 /* Written 5:18 pm Aug 10, 1985 by jack@boring in ima:net.lang */ > Something that caught my attention a while ago is the following: > Why do most programming languages do assignments like > Well, actually, because Fortran did it that way in 1957, and Algol-58 did it that way in 1958, and all algebraic languages since then appear to have been designed by people who already knew one or the other. The Fortran statement "A = B + C" roughly translates into the following Cobol (1959): ADD APPLES-ORDERED AND BLANKETS-RECEIVED GIVING CATTLE-DELIVERED. But since scientific and systems programmers have always had this thing about how nothing in Cobol could possibly be any good, it never caught on in the Fortran and Algol world. John Levine, ima!johnl PS: Yes, I know Cobol has the COMPUTE statement which uses Fortran assignment syntax, but Cobol programmers rarely use it.