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"if (x=0 || -10<y<10)"... it just feels so right, but nope: smackdown. Your first lesson in how programming languages will conspire against you and your logical

"if (x=0 || -10<y<10)"... it just feels so right, but nope: smackdown. Your first lesson in how programming languages will conspire against you and your logical thought processes. I think this paper is a great attempt to shake off the curse of knowledge, and I'd gladly read another dozen things that show the language getting in the way of the process. Is there a name for this kind of higher level analysis of programming language?

DeathArrow 5y ago
I presume that if you are learning something, you follow an instructor, a textbook or some kind of tutorial. Before learning conditions you should already know that = means attribution, not testing for equality. I'd rather blame the quality of learning resources or student lack of attention here than the language design if someone mistakes = for equality operator.
- goto11 5y ago
  Bad language design is not the fault of the student. After all, languages exist which doesn't have that problem.
- dunefox 5y ago
  > Before learning conditions you should already know that = means attribution, not testing for equality. Depends on the language. F# and CL, for example, would like a word.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  > I'd rather blame the quality of learning resources or student lack of attention here than the language design if someone mistakes = for equality operator. I see you don't have much experience with other programming languages, or you would have known that "=" is the equality operator in BASIC, Pascal, SQL and Excel... just to name a few of the most common occurrences where beginners -or- large-scale deployments would encounter this. That is the entire point of this paper, it uses C as an example, but the concepts are the same.
- ModernMech 5y ago
  Maybe if it were a single student, but this is a problem that has persisted across generations of students. I'm a fan of blaming tools for being poorly designed rather than the sad student who has to suffer using them. All their lives these students are told that "=" means that the left hand side and right hand side are equivalent. Then we give them a tool that throws the well-understood semantic meaning of the symbol out the window (for no good reason, mind you), and then you say we are to blame the student for being confused?
- iudqnolq 5y ago
  The other symbol is also behaving in an unexpected way here. I can't think of any language that allows 10 < y < 20.

DeathArrow 5y ago

I presume that if you are learning something, you follow an instructor, a textbook or some kind of tutorial. Before learning conditions you should already know that = means attribution, not testing for equality. I'd rather blame the quality of learning resources or student lack of attention here than the language design if someone mistakes = for equality operator.

goto11 5y ago
Bad language design is not the fault of the student. After all, languages exist which doesn't have that problem.
dunefox 5y ago
> Before learning conditions you should already know that = means attribution, not testing for equality. Depends on the language. F# and CL, for example, would like a word.
SavantIdiot 5y ago
> I'd rather blame the quality of learning resources or student lack of attention here than the language design if someone mistakes = for equality operator. I see you don't have much experience with other programming languages, or you would have known that "=" is the equality operator in BASIC, Pascal, SQL and Excel... just to name a few of the most common occurrences where beginners -or- large-scale deployments would encounter this. That is the entire point of this paper, it uses C as an example, but the concepts are the same.
ModernMech 5y ago
Maybe if it were a single student, but this is a problem that has persisted across generations of students. I'm a fan of blaming tools for being poorly designed rather than the sad student who has to suffer using them. All their lives these students are told that "=" means that the left hand side and right hand side are equivalent. Then we give them a tool that throws the well-understood semantic meaning of the symbol out the window (for no good reason, mind you), and then you say we are to blame the student for being confused?
iudqnolq 5y ago
The other symbol is also behaving in an unexpected way here. I can't think of any language that allows 10 < y < 20.