Assuming that you are correct about the implementation, then why not use some unused identifiers ($temp1, $temp2, $temp3 -- name doesn't matter) which only exist in limited scope as opposed to overriding the token identifiers?
yeah, that's what i meant by $`~(1) $`~(2) and such :P we can only speculate, but i assume $1- was just the simplest choice at the time, and one that involved little to no modification of other code.
