How do I use the conditional (ternary) operator?

I would say the ? is a short-cut. However, some "hard-core" programmers tend to say write it out the long way so in future cases, people can easily read and modify code.

For example, if you write

int a = b<c ? b : c;

Some people claim that it's clearer to write:

if(b<c)
 a = b;
else
 a = c;

Because in future cases, people can catch it. Of course, a simple b<c ? b:c is easy to catch, but sometimes complex operations are put in and it can be hard to spot.