Re:Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
by jholman on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @07:55AM
(#16810191)
It's a very common criticism.
And as a teacher of programming to adult students, this causes a small amount of wasted time with the overwhelming majority of students, because they know what "=" means, even the non-mathematical ones. Usually not a huge obstacle, but a perceptible one.
And once they learn that it's a mutating assignment, some (small) fraction of students continue to forget, for an infuriatingly long time, which direction the mutation goes.
And as a teacher of programming to adult students, this causes a small amount of wasted time with the overwhelming majority of students, because they know what "=" means, even the non-mathematical ones. Usually not a huge obstacle, but a perceptible one.
And once they learn that it's a mutating assignment, some (small) fraction of students continue to forget, for an infuriatingly long time, which direction the mutation goes.