Re: xkcd.com/353 ( Flying with Python )

On 2024-03-30 11:25, Skip Montanaro via Python-list wrote:

>

https://xkcd.com/1306/
                          what does  SIGIL   mean?

>
I think its' a Perl term, referring to the $/@/# symbols in front of
identifiers.
>

 I had a vague recollection of hearing it elsewhere (*Game of Thrones,* on
the armies' battle flags?), but didn't know what it meant. Google tells me:
 *an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power.*
 So, they're more than just line noise. They confer power on their users...
 Perhaps '@' in the context of decorators is the most prominent example in
Python, since decorators technically don't allow the programmer to do
something they couldn't before, but are now are used everywhere, a key
feature of many applications and modules.
 Magical-ly, y'rs,
 

I wouldn't consider '@' to be a sigil any more than I would a unary minus.
In Perl there's the prefixes $ (scalar), @ (array) and % (hash/dictionary), but also & (function), although it's rare because there's also the () afterwards.
Variables in PHP have the prefix $ and only $.
In old versions of BASIC, string variables had the suffix $, and integer variables the suffix %. Some versions also had the suffix # (for double precision, I think).