Why do I see JavaScript variables prefixed with $?
This is sort of a meta-question. Many snippets of JavaScript I've seen here on SO are named with a dollar sign prefix (for example, $id on the second line of the snippet shown in this question). I'm not referring to jQuery or other libraries. I am well aware that this is valid, but it seems awkward to do when not necessary. Why do people name their variables like this? Is it just familiarity with a server-side language like PHP carrying over into their JavaScript code? I thought perhaps it was to identify a variable as being a jQuery object, for example when you save the result of a selection