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Just an idea
As the .= operator is more efficient than var := var "append" and more convenient, what about a 'insert before' operator?

Obviously not pressing.

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+1

creepy, just last night I was thinking of the same concept, but didn't know how it could be added in. This is a good answer.

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+2

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Disclaimer: I'm not an expert by any means; I just try to help out where I can.

Can only be applied in v2 because of ambiguity with = assignment

I personally think it would be better if you could leave the concatenation operator as is and just switch the terms around:

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a := "1"
b := "2"
a .= b
Huh?

Obviously I'm meaning in the sense of appplying literal text and numerals, but you've pointed out something I hadn't considered, which is variable confusion. Consider that thought rescinded, but adding another equals operator just for that purpose seems kind of...wonky.

Perhaps there's an operator that can be used after the equals which can designate to append to the front or tail of a string.

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I like the =. but it doesn't comply with all of the others such as -= += .= := etc.

Maybe regex-ish like $= ? (As in the needle "^a$")

Too bad ^= is taken

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`= was going to be used for literal strings, but apparently that is not going to happen, afaik.

so is `= open for use? it looks pretty similar to .=, only the (deformed) dot is at the top. which makes sense:

top (`): usually means the beginning of something (a list, paragraph, newspaper, etc)
bottom (.): is usually at the end of something (end of a sentence, paragraph, list, etc)

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*poke*
Note: My name is all lowercase for a reason.
"I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault, Bigfoot is blurry. So there's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside."

So the ideas are:

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What do you mean? Naturally, =. =- =+ =: could all be reversed assignments. I personally don't think it would useful enough, though.

I just meant that the = comes before the dot in =. whereas in all other operators, the = comes after.

Obviously, 'var =- var2' as syntax sugar for 'var2 -= var' is pointless. However, a prepend operator seems to be gathering support.

It might also be a speed improvement in the same way the .= operator is faster, but I never look at that part of the source, so it's just a maybe.

Still, there are open operators (though it is true =. would be a v2 thing, while `= or $= could be v1.1.x)

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Wasn't that the whole point? =. is the reverse of .=
If there is room at the end of the variable, var .= "string" only needs to copy "string". This optimization could not be applied to a prepend operator since there's never going to be any room at the beginning of the variable unless it is completely empty - i.e. both strings will need to be copied at least once.

You're making a good case for =. but I kinda want to see this before v2

You still sort of miss my point. Yes .= and =. are reverses, which logically makes sense. Also, . is the concat operator, so =. once again makes sense.

However, afaik there is not a single operator where the = comes before the operator, so in that regard =. is totally breaking the 'rules' and being that much harder to understand.

I'd like some more feedback from other members but now I'm leaning towards `= based off of tidbit's explanation.

However, you could make it «= if you wanted. The question isn't really about which symbols but is it feasible and will it be useful. In the latter, I have only seen positive feedback.

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Btw, -= could not be reversed to =- because it could be confused with unary minus (negative)

-- infogulch