Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:6733 comp.lang.misc:964
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.misc
Subject: History of := (was: == vs =)
Message-ID: <2337@haddock.ISC.COM>
Date: 20 Jan 88 02:37:01 GMT
References: <626@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <214@oink.UUCP>
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Followup-To: comp.lang.misc
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 15

In article <214@oink.UUCP> jep@oink.UUCP (James E. Prior) writes:
>I find := for assignment to be quite obnoxious.  ... misleading ...
>In math : is often used for comparison, as in ratios.
>
>Cyber folklore around the office has it that := originated in Europe
>as something that looked similar to [left arrow].

If they wanted to preserve the appearance, I would expect that "<-" or "<="
would have been a better choice.  I've always believed that the ":=" (in ALGOL
and its successors) was taken directly from the identical mathematical symbol.
Since you find it "misleading", I presume you've never seen the mathematical
usage of ":="?

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint
(Followups to comp.lang.misc; this is not C-related anymore.)