[comp.lang.c] History of :=

karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer) (01/20/88)

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.)