It's not a perfect correspondence, but I think the point is simply to show that back in the 1950's, there was no consensus yet on how assignment ought to look.
It just happens that there was no consensus yet on how it should work, yet, either!
Then again, neither of the last 2 (modern) programming languages I've used have had FORTRAN/ALGOL-style assignment semantics, so I think the jury's still out.
It just happens that there was no consensus yet on how it should work, yet, either!
Then again, neither of the last 2 (modern) programming languages I've used have had FORTRAN/ALGOL-style assignment semantics, so I think the jury's still out.