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Re: Documentation, assignment in expression.

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From Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com>
Date Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:52:13 -0400
Subject Re: Documentation, assignment in expression.
To Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it@mail.python.org>
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Xref csiph.com comp.lang.python:22164

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On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 11:16 AM, Kiuhnm
<kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it@mail.python.org> wrote:
> On 3/25/2012 15:48, Tim Chase wrote:
>>
>> The old curmudgeon in me likes the Pascal method of using "=" for
>> equality-testing, and ":=" for assignment which feels a little closer to
>> mathematical use of "=".
>
>
> Unfortunately, ":=" means "is defined as" in mathematics. The "right"
> operator would have been "<-".


"Is defined as" is actually pretty reasonable. "Define this to be
that" is a common way to speak about assignment. Its only difference
is the present tense. For example, in Python, "def" stands for
"define", but we can overwrite previous definitions::

    def f(x): return x
    def f(x): return 2
    f(3) == 2

In fact, in pretty every programming language that I know of with a
"define" assignment verb, this is so. For example, in Scheme, x is 2
at the end::

    (define x 1)
    (define x 2)
    x

-- Devin

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Thread

Documentation, assignment in expression. Alexander Blinne <news@blinne.net> - 2012-03-23 23:59 +0100
  Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-03-23 21:09 -0400
    Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Alexander Blinne <news@blinne.net> - 2012-03-25 14:18 +0200
      Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-03-25 08:03 -0500
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-03-26 05:36 +0000
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-03-26 12:00 -0400
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Thomas Rachel <nutznetz-0c1b6768-bfa9-48d5-a470-7603bd3aa915@spamschutz.glglgl.de> - 2012-03-26 15:59 +0200
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-03-26 12:42 -0500
      Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-03-26 00:11 +1100
      Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-03-25 08:48 -0500
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-25 17:16 +0200
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-03-25 13:22 -0500
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-03-26 05:47 +0000
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-03-26 04:52 -0400
            Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-26 12:56 +0200
              Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2012-03-26 14:13 +0300
                Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-26 13:58 +0200
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-03-25 09:17 -0700
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. mwilson@the-wire.com - 2012-03-25 19:09 -0400
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-03-25 22:29 -0400
            Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. mwilson@the-wire.com - 2012-03-26 07:27 -0400
      Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-03-26 01:11 +1100
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Kiuhnm <kiuhnm03.4t.yahoo.it> - 2012-03-25 17:17 +0200
      Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-03-25 18:59 -0400
        Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Thomas Rachel <nutznetz-0c1b6768-bfa9-48d5-a470-7603bd3aa915@spamschutz.glglgl.de> - 2012-03-26 15:54 +0200
          Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2012-03-26 12:16 -0400
      Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2012-03-26 05:14 -0500
  Re: Documentation, assignment in expression. Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2012-03-23 21:37 -0400

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