I agree with Lonkero, I love the $= and have been using it way too long to stop now. I think it makes code less cluttered and a bit easier to read (imho). Plus the fact that our production scripts are riddled with it`s usage. Sure, it may be a bit of a loaded gun, but if one appreciates and understands the mechanism (and the dangers), no bad will happen. For someone starting with a clean slate - I`d probably discourage the usage.

-Shawn