From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <0be949acb2969d8526bb9b950f1c8a2f@coraid.com>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] Good enough approximation for ape/pcc
From: Brantley Coile <brantley@coraid.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:55:28 -0400
In-Reply-To: <2a06789eba28e4363224c0b7b2c06007@monitorbm.co.nz>
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No.  In Limbo if you say I=0 and you haven't declared `I' then
you get an error.  You only use the `I := 0' when you want to make
a new `I.'

And having lived with FORTRAN, a requirement to declare your variables
was a big advance.  It was hard to find misspelled variables in
FORTRAN because they weren't flaged as errors.  History is a good thing.

>  >limbo's ":=" works like that ...
>
>  >i := 0;    # declares i as in an int and assigns 0 to it
>  >r := ref Boo;    # declares r to be scarey
>
> Well yes, but didn't Fortran's "=" work like that well before limbo?
>
> C     DECLARE I AS AN INTEGER AND ASSIGN 0 TO IT
>         I=0
> C     DECLARE A TO BE A SCAREY FLOATING POINT NUMBER
>        A=666.0