A Bug By Any Other Name ...

Mon Jul 13 07:44:32 EDT 2009

In message <mailman.2787.1246986627.8015.python-list at python.org>, MRAB 
wrote:

> I wonder whether the problem with assignment in conditionals in C is due
> to the assignment operator being "=". If it was ":=", would the error
> still occur?

One of the original C designers, Kernighan or Ritchie, admitted that he made 
the assignment operator "=" instead of ":=" just to save typing one 
character, because he thought assignments were more common than tests for 
equality.