C's syntax

[Steve Williams]

Andrew Dalke wrote:

> Erik Max Francis wrote:
> >[Writing "0 == a" instead of "a == 0" to catch accidental typos of
> >"=" instead of "=="] is largely unnecessary.  It is a novice programming
> > error, one that actual programmers do not make unless they are very green.
>
> I accidentally typed "=" instead of "==" today, in Python code expecting
> an expression.  I was glad to get the exception.  Oh, and I've been coding
> for 17+ years and professionally for 5 of those, so I'm not very green.
>

[snip]

Of course in COBOL you can write

    If a = 1 . . .

as well as

    if a = 1 or 2 or 3 . . .

and even

    if a not equal 1 and 2 and 3 . . .

In COBOL, only a novice would write

    if a == 1

and the compiler would definitely sneer at him.

But then COBOL's an antique, verbose language.