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In the original Smalltalk implementation, the character corresponding to _ in ASCII was a left facing arrow, which Smalltalk used for assignment at the time.
by kbp 9y ago
In the original Smalltalk implementation, the character corresponding to _ in ASCII was a left facing arrow, which Smalltalk used for assignment at the time.
- classichasclass 9y agoAnd now you know where the left-arrow on Commodore keyboards came from (same ASCII value): ASCII-1963, which became PETSCII instead of ASCII-1967.
- bogomipz 9y agoI'm not following. The corresponding ASCII code for _ is 96 no? http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/extended-ascii-code/underline-underscore-ascii-code-242.html http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/extended-ascii-code/underline...
- tom_mellior 9y ago"In the original Parc Place image, the glyph of the underscore character (_) appeared as a left-facing arrow (like in the 1963 version of the ASCII code). Smalltalk originally accepted this left-arrow as the only assignment operator. Some modern code still contains what appear to be underscores acting as assignments, hearkening back to this original usage. Most modern Smalltalk implementations accept either the underscore or the colon-equals syntax." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk#Assignment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk#Assignment
- kps 9y agoPre-1967 ASCII had slightly different printable characters and somewhat different control characters. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII