Newsgroups: php.internals Path: news.php.net Xref: news.php.net php.internals:7342 Return-Path: Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm Delivered-To: mailing list internals@lists.php.net Received: (qmail 70394 invoked by uid 1010); 27 Jan 2004 03:31:31 -0000 Delivered-To: ezmlm-scan-internals@lists.php.net Delivered-To: ezmlm-internals@lists.php.net Received: (qmail 70325 invoked from network); 27 Jan 2004 03:31:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mx.tossell.net) (66.92.170.96) by pb1.pair.com with SMTP; 27 Jan 2004 03:31:31 -0000 Received: by mx.tossell.net (Postfix, from userid 1019) id 25AD09E1D8; Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:31:29 -0500 (EST) Received: from ip1.tossell.net (ip1.tossell.net [66.92.170.96]) by mx.tossell.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 887689D79A; Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:31:28 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:31:28 -0500 (EST) X-X-Sender: ken@minerva.tossell.net To: Michael Hawley Cc: internals@lists.php.net In-Reply-To: <5EA4B904-5071-11D8-8C60-000A956E1B66@media.mit.edu> Message-ID: References: <5EA4B904-5071-11D8-8C60-000A956E1B66@media.mit.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_20,EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,IN_REP_TO,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT, REFERENCES,REPLY_WITH_QUOTES,USER_AGENT_PINE autolearn=ham version=2.55 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] dollars and sense. From: kennyt@php.net (Ken Tossell) On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Michael Hawley wrote: > 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. Two letters: HA But to answer your question based on current PHP, non-prefixed variables would conflict with define()d constants, which appear as: $foo = 'abc'.bar; Ken ps: sorry, but... heh... pps: don't use "foo $bar blah" -- use 'foo ' . $bar . ' blah'; or commas:)