Re: Why multiplication not allowed?

From: Joona I Palaste (palaste_at_cc.helsinki.fi)
Date: 01/07/04 

Date: 7 Jan 2004 14:04:36 GMT

Sean Kenwrick <skenwrick@hotmail.com> scribbled the following:
> But I think the reason I didn't get the job was because one of the other
> questions the interviewer asked me was to tell him what was wrong with the
> following statement:

> i=+i;

> I said that there was nothing wrong with it, but the interviewer claimed
> that it was an ambiguous statement because it could mean adding i to itselt
> or setting i to +i. I got into an argument with him saying that he must
> be confused with i+=i; but he was adament he was right and got annoyed that
> I was disagreeing wih him.

> Afterwards I wondered whether this might have been some kind of syntax left
> over from a very early incarnation of C which was subsequently dropped.
> Perhaps the members of this group could enlighten me about this since I
> think that this guy was just a complete idiot.

Yes, this is an obsolete feature of C. =+ and =- originally meant the
same as += and -=. Whoever designed them that way must have been
drinking something really strong. AFAIK they were dropped when ISO
standardised C.
That the interviewer still clung to the obsolete meanings of those
operators makes me feel that he wasn't the proper person to interview
you about C. 

-- 
/-- Joona Palaste (palaste@cc.helsinki.fi) ------------- Finland --------\
\-- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/
"Parthenogenetic procreation in humans will result in the founding of a new
religion."
   - John Nordberg

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