splitting in assignment forms of expansion

[Han Pingtian <hanpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

The manpage of zshexpn states about "${=...}":

      Note  that  splitting is applied to word in the assignment forms
      of spec before  the  assignment  to  name  is  performed.   This
      affects the result of array assignments with the A flag.

but looks like the splitting isn't applied to word first:

% print -l ${=xx::=foo           bar}
foo
bar
%  print -l $xx
foo           bar
%

I'm confused on this. Please help.

Thanks.