Tim wrote:

[Guido, quotes Christian]

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The following statements are ordered by increasing hate. 1 - I do hate the idea of introducing a "$" sign at all. 2 - giving "$" special meaning in strings via a module 3 - doing it as a builtin function 4 - allowing it to address local/global variables

[and adds]

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Doesn't 4 contradict your +1 on allvars()?

Since Christian's reply only increased the apparent contradiction, allow me to channel: they are ordered by increasing hate, but starting at the bottom. s/increasing/decreasing/ in his original, or s/hate/love/, and you can continue to read it in the top-down Dutch way <wink>.

If you'll allow me to counter-channel: Christian hates giving this special syntax form access to local/global variables, since it's a security risk that's not apparent unless you know what you're looking for. He prefers to use allvars() to achieve the same end, since it's explicit. He's not opposed to variable access in general. Write-only variables don't tend to find much use. Joe