On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Wiggins d Anconia wrote:
On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, jason corbett wrote:
Just as algebra problems often use "x" and "n" for arbitrary variables, many Perl programmers use "foo" and "bar" for arbitrary variables.
Not just Perl programmers:
http://jargon.watson-net.com/jargon.asp?w=metasyntactic%20variable http://jargon.watson-net.com/jargon.asp?w=foo
[....] if it should be treated as a string, it should be wrapped in single- or double-quotes, and if it is a variable then it needs a prefix ($ @ % &). )
'Sigil' rather than 'prefix'...
Well, yes, to both points.
I was trying to err on the side of minimal jargon & only Perl, but of course you're right: lots of languages use the foo/bar variable name idiom, and the term for the character that precedes one of Perl's "nouns" is "sigil". (In this context, I'm treating a subroutine [that does something] as a noun, not thinking about how "verb"y they are, in order to be consistent with the other uses of sigils.)
-- Chris Devers
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