//first the difference between single and double quotes:
print " here is $a <br />";
print ' and here is $a again<br />';

//notice how we use HTML tags inside the quotes to format the display,
//just as if we were writing a static web page?

//now for some fun...
echo "$b can be escaped by using backslash to show up as though it was inside single quotes like this : \$b <br />";

echo "You can use echo for longer
values that span several
lines of code, but that still need HTML to <br />format on the final page<br />";

print "when displaying values from variables you don't NEED to use any quotes - ";
echo $status;

echo "<br /><br />when using echo we can also use a lone . to join things together the same as we used .= with the variable :<br />" . $travels . 'you can even join together diffent types of quotes and you can use several . s to'.
' make bigger statements. <br /><br />';

echo 'another time that you might find the escape character (backslash) handy is when you need to use a single quote inside a single quote, like "He said \'I\'m not falling for that!\'".';

//EOF -- same point of refference as the last time.