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It's the walrus operator. Pascal and Python use it as well. You get used to it pretty quickly.

It was something introduced like a 1 april joke. Clean implementation of any programming language won't have that.

I actually think it’s more readable because it makes the distinction between assignment and equivalence very clear.

bugs originating from the similarity of == vs = has probably cost the industry millions over the last 3 decades.

That ship has long sailed. ALGOL 1958 used := and Pascal popularized it.

I think they scan the code by two characters because one is not enough for <= and => so what is why assignment is := or =:. Probably + is ++ too.