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Re:Why Does “=” Mean Assignment? by jandrese on Tuesday April 10, 2018 @04:57PM (#16805336)
Plankalkül had the advantage of not having to run on a real machine.

As far as := is concerned having to use the shift key for an assignment is less than ideal but there really aren't any better options on a modern keyboard. I think C's use of = is a bit braindamaged but it is nice and quick to type.

Re:Why Does “=” Mean Assignment? by aap_ on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @03:53AM (#16808938)
On an ASR33 = is the character you have press shift for. : is unshifted.
Re:Why Does “=” Mean Assignment? by kps on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @10:39AM (#16811493)
Many early video terminals and microcomputers had similar layouts, because they were easy to implement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit-paired_keyboard