That is, explicitly, the origin of ‘=’ for assignment in Fortran. The section describing assignment is titled ‘Arithmetic Formulas’: A. An arithmetic formula i

That is, explicitly, the origin of ‘=’ for assignment in Fortran. The section describing assignment is titled ‘Arithmetic Formulas’: A. An arithmetic formula is a variable (subscripted, or not), followed by an equals sign, followed by an expression. B. It should be noted that the equals sign in an arithmetic formula has the significance of “replace”. In effect, therefore, the meaning of an arithmetic formula is as follows: Evaluate the expression on the right and substitute this value as the value of the variable on the left.