can't get assignment to work

[Kier Heyl]

I'm using mysql front to connect to a version 4.0.16 database and I'm trying to use the assignment operator, yet it doesn't seem to recognize it. I can do the following:

set @index = 0;

But this doesn't work:

set @index := 0;

This doesn't work:

select @index := id from arrangers where name = 'Bob';

And this obviously returns 0 because it's a comparison:

select @index = id from arrangers where name = 'Bob';

Any ideas why the := assignment operator isn't working?

-Kier