That's probably because string were the only variables in classic BASIC that were obviously different from the rest. The rest was probably just auto-initialised as single precision orso, usually one didn't care about variable types. -boy did the old days stink ^_^- One just did FOR A=0 TO 255 .. and it worked. 'A' is .. what? Probably some expensive single precision variable. Hence, what ppl remember is $ for text, the rest never was important.