As a programmer I have always assumed that using != as meaning not equal to when writing text (usually on the internet) came from programming languages. Is this true or is the origin different?
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C and the unix shells use != for not equal, it comes from the maths symbol ≠.
The earlier computer langauge FORTRAN that was (and is) used for more mathematical work uses .ne. because it was invented before the symbols on keyboards were standardised
Yes, this is from programming languages such as C and C++.
(Edit: Combining vincente and Mark Hurd's comment with something extra.)
And some languages (including B and C) use
protected by RegDwigнt♦ Jul 18 '11 at 9:42
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