And it has no state. Half the point of computation is maintaining state for the purpose of efficiency. So, computation gets an "assignment" operator where pure math lacks one, pure math being relegated to subscripts of time and indicator functions instead.
My math teachers had no problem with '42 = x' vs 'x = 42' as long as the steps made sense to get there. In fact they'd probably comment that there was no need to go with 'x = 42' if I obviously took a circuitous route simply to end up with x on the left side of the equation, as that would have demonstrated a lack of internalizing some of the base ideas of algebra and it's approach of equation symmetry.
You should distinguish the meaning of = in mathematical and meta-mathematical statements. “42y = yx, therefore 42 = x” is fine; but “let 42 = x” is not.
Some older C coding styles recommend that order because before compilers added warnings, “if (17 = variable)” resulted in a diagnostic, while “if (variable = 17)” would not. Nowadays, I think most programmers prefer putting the fastest-changing expression first.
Yeah that is due to clever C semantics that that should never had allowed for anything other than boolean expressions in conditionals like proper grown languages.
