it's just a different symbol from the usual assignment operator, that is to say "put the value you're referring to as `n` in the variable `head`", just like `he

it's just a different symbol from the usual assignment operator, that is to say "put the value you're referring to as `n` in the variable `head`", just like `head = n` in most languages with assignment. the only reason for the arrow is if you're using `=` for true equality, as in `head` is always the same as the value `n`, or if you wanted to use `=` to mean `equals?`, a boolean test for momentary equality. i don't know if any of that helps, it all just comes down to recognizing the symbol and interpreting it correctly.