It's the walrus operator. Pascal and Python use it as well. You get used to it pretty quickly.

It was something introduced like a 1 april joke. Clean implementation of any programming language won't have that.

hnlmorg 7 months ago | parent | next [-]

I actually think it’s more readable because it makes the distinction between assignment and equivalence very clear.

bugs originating from the similarity of == vs = has probably cost the industry millions over the last 3 decades.

kortex 7 months ago | parent | prev [-]

That ship has long sailed. ALGOL 1958 used := and Pascal popularized it.

	▲	fatih-erikli-cg 7 months ago \| parent [-]
		I think they scan the code by two characters because one is not enough for <= and => so what is why assignment is := or =:. Probably + is ++ too.