Newsgroups: php.internals Path: news.php.net Xref: news.php.net php.internals:7340 Return-Path: Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm Delivered-To: mailing list internals@lists.php.net Received: (qmail 29345 invoked by uid 1010); 27 Jan 2004 02:34:46 -0000 Delivered-To: ezmlm-scan-internals@lists.php.net Delivered-To: ezmlm-internals@lists.php.net Received: (qmail 29291 invoked from network); 27 Jan 2004 02:34:46 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO bayer.media.mit.edu) (18.85.2.138) by pb1.pair.com with SMTP; 27 Jan 2004 02:34:46 -0000 Received: from [18.85.18.128] (wireless-128.media.mit.edu [18.85.18.128]) by bayer.media.mit.edu (8.12.5p1/8.12.5/MEDIA) with ESMTP id i0R2YkRh003427; Mon, 26 Jan 2004 21:34:46 -0500 (EST) Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v612) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-ID: <5EA4B904-5071-11D8-8C60-000A956E1B66@media.mit.edu> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Michael Hawley Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 21:34:45 -0500 To: internals@lists.php.net X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.612) Subject: dollars and sense. From: mike@media.mit.edu (Michael Hawley) Why must variable names begin with $? I can't see any real reason, except when signalling a replacement within a string (e.g., "... $var ..."). The language would be less cumbersome if the dollar was optional otherwise. Mike