It is a bit annoying having to press 3 keys using two hands instead of just one.
With '=' I can "hyperthread" my typing. While I'm finishing the LHS and pressing space I can move my right hand to press '=', while keeping my left hand thumb in place to press the space bar for the right side.
With ':=' I have to stop everything to press shift with my left hand, then press ':', then release shift and press '='. It's very inefficient for something that happens often.
I've never really had a big issue with this. I have no issue keeping my thumb on the spacebar while holding left shift, and in addition I've grown to rather like the syntax.
In the long run I'd say multiple assignment probably saves you more time writing declarations than an extra key-stroke would cost you.
Just think about how much more you'd have to type if you were programming C, and you'll be ok :)
My main gripe with := vs = is that as I change my code, an existing := may suddenly become invalid, meaning I have to go back and change it when compilation fails, or vice versa.
Yes, but thankfully compilation fails rather than succeed and then fail in some mysterious way at runtime.
As someone who has been stuck writing JavaScript for Yahoo Widgets (Vizio Connected TV) over the past month, my appreciation for the compiler errors you get in static languages has grown tremendously. Previously I had taken them too much for granted.
