Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!uvaarpa!virginia!babbage!mac3n
From: mac3n@babbage.acc.virginia.edu (Alex Colvin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Mathematics (was: == vs =)
Message-ID: <147@babbage.acc.virginia.edu>
Date: 27 Jan 88 18:01:42 GMT
References: <2337@haddock.ISC.COM> <51300003@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <715@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <19282@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 8

(I wasn't going to say anything, but the phone line typed "f" for me.)

Mathematically, there's usually no need to distinguish "=" from ":=".
Any assertion of equality may define something.

The thing about equality is that equal things are equal in ALL contexts.
That's why logics with equality are more powerful than those without.
That's why we use symbols like <=> when we don't want full equality.