what's the meaning of '=?' in angularJS directive isolate scope declaration?

Question

Yes:

The 'isolate' scope takes an object hash which defines a set of local scope properties derived from the parent scope. These local properties are useful for aliasing values for templates. Locals definition is a hash of local scope property to its source:

= or =attr - set up bi-directional binding between a local scope property and the parent scope property of name defined via the value of the attr attribute. If no attr name is specified then the attribute name is assumed to be the same as the local name. Given <widget my-attr="parentModel"> and widget definition of scope: { localModel:'=myAttr' }, then widget scope property localModel will reflect the value of parentModel on the parent scope. Any changes to parentModel will be reflected in localModel and any changes in localModel will reflect in parentModel. If the parent scope property doesn't exist, it will throw a NON_ASSIGNABLE_MODEL_EXPRESSION exception. You can avoid this behavior using =? or =?attr in order to flag the property as optional.

It should trigger the expected error on every digest that affects the scope property:

parentSet = parentGet.assign || function() {
// reset the change, or we will throw this exception on every $digest
lastValue = scope[scopeName] = parentGet(parentScope);
     throw Error(NON_ASSIGNABLE_MODEL_EXPRESSION + attrs[attrName] +
     ' (directive: ' + newScopeDirective.name + ')');
};

//...


if (parentValue !== scope[scopeName]) {
    // we are out of sync and need to copy
    if (parentValue !== lastValue) {
        // parent changed and it has precedence
        lastValue = scope[scopeName] = parentValue;
    } else {
        // if the parent can be assigned then do so
        parentSet(parentScope, lastValue = scope[scopeName]);
    }
}