Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!alberta!myrias!cg
From: cg@myrias.UUCP (Chris Gray)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: = vs ==
Summary: It CAN be a problem
Message-ID: <547@myrias.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jan 88 18:21:00 GMT
Reply-To: cg@myriasa.UUCP (Chris Gray)
Organization: Myrias Research Corporation
Lines: 18

I am one of the people who have trouble with accidentally using = instead
of ==. (I once actually used == instead of = in an assignment statement too.)
My problem is not lack of experience with C - I've used it for 10 years or
so, and have written tens of thousands of lines of C, including an ANSI C
compiler. My problem stems from the fact that I also program at home on my
Amiga, using a compiler of my own (Draco), which uses = for comparison and
:= for assignment. Thus, I switch back and forth between the two styles on
a daily basis. My hardest day is monday, after a whole weekend of using the
other style. I don't have problems going in the other direction because the
compiler at home is helpful and points out my silliness to me, unlike the
C compiler at work which blithely ignores it. I'll be glad when we switch to
our own target machines for development, so that I can use our compiler, which
by default warns of those cases which appear dubious (the true C hacker will
of course make an alias to disable that option).

-- 
Chris Gray		Myrias Research, Edmonton	+1 403 428 1616
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