Re: [TCLCORE] TIP #292: Allow Unquoted Strings in Expressions

[<lm...@bi...>]

On Sun, Nov 05, 2006 at 10:59:10PM +0000, Donal K. Fellows wrote:
> Will Duquette wrote:
> > Alternatively, if one used ":=" as the assignment operator for
> > TIP 282 there'd be no active harm in using the enhanced syntax
> > in "if" and "while".  You *could* write "if {a := $b}" if you
> > really wanted to, but you'd be much less likely to do it
> > accidentally.
> 
> I agree with and strongly support this suggestion. Many years of
> experience with C and Java (learning, using, and teaching) tells me that
> the "BCPL mistake"[*] is a horrible thing that always leads to trouble.
> If we ensure that "=" is not legal, it forces people to choose between
> definitely equality (==) and definitely assignment (:=). I've done this
> in the past in other languages, and it makes for fewer user errors.

For what it is worth, we have 8+ years of usage and we do horrible things
like

	unless (f = fopen(file, "r")) {
		error stuff here
	}

and I can't remember an instance of someone getting it wrong because we
did an "==" instead of an "=" or the other way around.

I think this is a newbie error that simply doesn't happen with pros.
-- 
---
Larry McVoy                lm at bitmover.com           http://www.bitkeeper.com