Quite awhile back, we had a discussion about removing "$" from the set of allowed characters in operator names, and instead allowing it as a non-first character in identifiers. (It'd have to be non-first to avoid ambiguity with parameter symbols "$nnn".) See, eg, http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2001-08/msg00629.php
That discussion petered out without any definite consensus being reached, but I think it's time to reconsider the idea. We're getting flak about "x<$n" being parsed as "x <$ n" rather than "x < $n" (see current thread in pgsql-sql). While this has always been a hazard for SQL and plpgsql function writers, it is now also a hazard in direct SQL, if you use PREPAREd queries. So I think the importance of avoiding such problems has moved up a notch as of 7.3. So, I'd like to put that proposal back on the table. Comments anyone? regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster