efefef" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD>
<PRE>
<font color="#82140F">
.number. = 10
read columns .number. x y
read columns 10 x y
</font></PRE>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<p>
Variable names begin and end with a single period (example:
`<font color="#82140F"><code>.num.</code></font>').  (Gri uses this odd notation to distinguish variable
names from ``normal'' words, which is necessary because Gri does not
have a limited list of keywords as other languages do.  Thus, the C
programming language is happy to let you use a var