why cannot assign to function call

[Steve Holden]

Wolfgang Strobl wrote:
> Derek Martin <code at pizzashack.org>:
> 
>> It took me about a half a second to grasp the "named bins" concept --
>> i.e. as soon as I was finished reading the words that explained it I
>> understood it, so I'd say that based on your half-hour number,
>> Python's model is substantially more complicated.  
> 
> I don't think so. Personally, I started programming by punching Fortran
> IV statements into an IBM 26, submitting them as a batch job to an IBM
> 7090, so the "named bins" concept is quite heavily engraved into my
> brain. :-) But it didn't take me long to grasp (and enjoy!) the much
> more advanced concept of variable bindings in SNOBOL4, which is similar
> to Pythons, but predates Python quite some time. 
> 
> Quoting
> 
> http://burks.bton.ac.uk/burks/language/snobol/catspaw/manual/ch6.htm 
> 
> Chapter 6 : DATA TYPES AND CONVERSION
> 
>  Most other programming languages require the user to explicitly declare
>  the type of data to be stored in a variable. In SNOBOL4, any variable 
>  may contain any data type. Furthermore, the variable's type may be 
>  freely altered during program execution. SNOBOL4 remembers what kind of
>  data is in each variable. 
> 
[...]
> 
> C:\e\spitbol>spitbol test.spt
> SPITBOL-386   Release 3.7(ver 1.30.16)   Serial 20158
> (c) Copyright 1987-1997 Robert B. K. Dewar and Catspaw, Inc.
> Snobol/Spitbol  Beispiel
[...]
> 
Thanks for the memories. I developed the DECSystem-10 Spitbol
implementation. I had no idea support of the language continued up to
1997, as I switched to Icon when Griswold produced that and found it a
far superior language.

regards
 Steve
-- 
Steve Holden        +1 571 484 6266   +1 800 494 3119
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