Re: First language with conditional assignment?

"robin" <robin51@dodo.com.au> wrote in message
>
>>Does anyone know what the earliest languages supporting conditional
>>assignment were?
>
> There's Algol from c. 1960, with things like:
>
> a := if e > f then b else c;
>
> As for me, I don't like conditional assignments,
> much preferring the traditional form --
>
> if e > f then a := b else a := c;


Neither of those look like conditional assignments to me. Both seem to be
unconditional assignments, so that a ends up with a new value (b or c) in
either case.


(The if e>f bit is just a form of expression, which could just as well
appear anywhere else.)


However, I can't offer an alternative syntax other than:


  if e>f then a:=b


which, written perhaps as:


  (e>f | a:=b)


can't get much that much more compact.
--
Bartc
[See the Icon example. -John]

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