What is GCC\'s \">?=\" Operator and What Happened to It?

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GCC's Mysterious Operator: Unraveling the Enigma of ">?="

In the depths of the BigInt.cpp library for C , a puzzling snippet of commentary surfaces: "This class uses some of the g extensions (like 'long double' and the '>?>=' operator)." What lies behind this enigmatic notation?

Digging Deeper into the Operator's Nature

Unfortunately, searching elsewhere for documentation on the ">?=" operator proves fruitless. It appears to be a remnant of GCC's past, a feature that has since been retired. The GCC documentation confirms this, stating that it was removed in version 4.2.

Unveiling Its Hidden Meaning

Though the operator itself is gone, its legacy remains. The equivalent expression for ">?=" is "a = max(a, b)". This means that ">?=" assigns the maximum value between 'a' and 'b' to 'a'. For instance, "x >?= 5" is equivalent to "x = max(x, 5)".

A Counterpart: the Operator "<>"

Curiously, GCC also had a similar operator, "<>", which has likewise been consigned to history. Its counterpart in today's C is "a = min(a, b)", assigning the minimum value between 'a' and 'b' to 'a'.

Conclusion

The ">?=" operator was a fleeting but impactful feature of GCC's compiler history. While it no longer grace our code, its legacy lives on in the understanding of GCC's evolution and the nuances of C programming.

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