Early versions of BASIC had a keyword "LET". LET X = 3 is devoid of most of the ambiguity, and LET 3 = X is much less likely to be attempted. 'Course, changing the values of constants opens up some strange possibilities!
On Fri, 29 Jan 2021, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
SUBROUTINE FOO(X) INTEGER X X=15 RETURN END ... CALL FOO(10) Lots of fun, there.
I said that LET made redefining constants LESS likely, just because it clarifies that it is an assignment to be done. There are other ways.
Redefining constants permits fixing a number of things, such as 42 WHATDOYOUGETWHENYOUMULTIPLYSIXBYNINE
