[Michael Hudson] > ... > if you meant min(a,b), then I then think the programmer who > thinks "min(a,b)" is spelt "a<b" has problems we can't be expected to > deal with (if min has a symbol it's /\, but never mind that). Curiously, in the Icon language, if a is less than b then a < b returns b while b > a returns a. In this way they get the same effect as Python's chained comparisons a < b < c < d via purely binary operators (if a is *not* less than b, a < b in Icon "fails", which is a silent event that causes the expression's context to backtrack -- but we won't go into that here <wink>). Anyway, that accounts for this curious Icon idiom: a <:= b which is short for a := a < b and binds a to max(a, b) (if a is smaller, a < b returns b and the assignment proceeds; but if a is not smaller, a < b fails and that propagates into its context, which here has no other possibilities to backtrack into, so the stmt just ends leaving a alone). "<"-and-">"-are-just-bags-of-pixels-ly y'rs - tim
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