Confusion over number assignment

[poila]

Hi, relatively new to AutoIt but has done some programming prior to learning AutoIt.

Got stumped by this statement during my code review of a previous worker's AutoIt script.

Normally, as with all other previous programming languages, this statement seems simple enough:

$hPopup = MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, "Title 1", "Insert text here")

But what made me confused is, how does the following make sense?

If 6 = MsgBox($MB_TOPMOST + 68, "Title 2", "Insert more text here") Then

    ExitLoop

EndIf

 

How is it possible to assignment to a fixed number (6) with a call to a function? Shouldn't it be assigning to a variable?

When I ran that script, it could run without compile errors.

I have touched things like Javascript, C# and C++ before, and from past experiences, I am surprised how in AutoIt this script seems syntactically correct.

Can anyone please enlighten me on this?

[JohnOne]

In AutoIt "=" is not always an assignment operator, the interpreter knows it's a comparison.

EDIT:

In other words it's a very loosely typed scripting language.

Edited May 7, 2014 by JohnOne

[poila]

Hi JohnOne,

I am actually aware that within the If statement for Autoit, = can be used to test for equality instead of assignment.

But what I think I got into confusion is that I might be more used to seeing this format for comparing:

variable_name [comparing_operator] value_or_variable

as opposed to what I am seeing:

fixed_value [comparing_operator] variable

Does that mean that in AutoIt, the order of how the variables/values are placed is loose too?

[BrewManNH]

In answer to your question, the answer is yes, it doesn't matter which side of the comparison operator you have them.