programmer, but which differs in terms of formal grammar and implementation. Name mangling Name mangling also addresses name clashes by renaming identifiers, but does this much later in compilation, during semantic analysis, not during tokenization. This consists of creating names that include scope and type information, primarily for use by linkers, both to avoid clashes and to include necessary semantic information in the name itself. In these cases the original identifiers may be identical, but the context is different, as in the functions foo(int x) versus foo(char x), in both cases having the same identifier foo, but different signature. These names might be mangled to foo_i and foo_c, for instance, to include the type information. Sigils A syntactically similar but semantically different phenomenon are sigils, which instead indicate properties of variables. These are common in Perl, Ruby, and various other languages to identify characteristics of variables/constants: Perl to designate the type of variable, Ruby both to distinguish variables from constants and to indicate scope. Note that this affects the semantics of the variable, not the syntax of whether it is an identifier or keyword. Parallels in human language Stropping is used in computer programming languages to make the compiler's (or more strictly, the parser's) job easier, i.e. within the capability of the relatively small and slow computers available in early days of computing in the 20th century. However, similar techniques have been commonly used to aid reading comprehension for people too. Some examples are: Placing important words in bold, such as the very first mention of stropping at the head of this page, because defining stropping is the very purpose of the page. Formatting new words in italic type when they are first introduced in text. This is commonly used in science fiction and fantasy when introducing invented plants, foods, creatures; in travelogue and historical writing when describing unfamiliar foreign words; and so on. Also using a special font, possibly associated with the language in question, for example using a Gothic font for German words. Using a different language, typically Latin or Greek to signify technical terms. This is similar to using reserved words, but it is usually combined with italic text to aid readability. For example: the typical binomial nomenclature or "Latin names" of plants and animals helps the reader to see that "Erithacus rubecula" is the special technical name of the Erithacus rubecula, in a way that "Red-breasted