If PHP Were British (2011)

Re:If PHP Were British (2011) by elric on Friday December 02, 2022 @07:54AM (#33829853)

I always assumed it originated with Perl, where $ is for scalars and @ for arrays.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If PHP Were British (2011) by avian on Friday December 02, 2022 @08:15AM (#33830040)

I'm sure this use of $ character is much older than Perl.

One counter-example I know first hand: Sinclair ROM BASIC uses $ for denoting strings, in both variable and function names.

The one I have in a Spectrum is copyrighted 1982, around 5 years before first Perl was released.

I'm sure there are older examples like this.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If PHP Were British (2011) by elric on Friday December 02, 2022 @08:52AM (#33830389)

You're right, seems like this usage goes back to at least 1964 in BASIC.

[ Parent | on HN ]