Dependence on Programming Experts

[Troy Rollins]

On Jul 11, 2006, at 8:05 PM, Mark Smith wrote:

> So in Revolution, 'x = 5' is an expression that evaluates to true  
> if the value held in variable x happens to be 5, and I'd imagine  
> that changing this might cause all sorts of trouble. Maybe it would  
> be practical to implement a pascal-type '==' assignment operator,  
> but I don't know enough about the way scripts are compiled to know  
> if that could happen.

I understand the historical "reasons", but the argument that it would  
mess anything up I just can't see. Like anything else, the purpose is  
within the context.

You would no sooner put

x = 5

on a line by itself for any reason other than assignment of value,  
than you would put

true

or

false

on lines by themselves. I don't see any opportunity for ambiguity of  
intention here. Director has had this syntax without problems for  
many years.

x = 5 // assignment
if x = 5 then // comparison


I can't tell you how many times I've first written variable  
assignments this way in Revolution only to turn around and say "oh  
yeah...  PUT the key into the backpack...PUT 5 into x...".

Yes. Revolution coding STILL seems to me like playing text adventure  
games from the 80s.  ;-)

--
Troy
RPSystems, Ltd.
http://www.rpsystems.net