jim / freeze.org wrote:

> * Florian Gro<florgro / gmail.com> [2004-10-27 22:57:01 +0900]:
>>5) Inconsistency between :$0 and :$1? The first one is valid, but the 
>>latter isn't.
> 
> Could be because $0 has a value and $1 is nil.

irb(main):132:0> /(.)/.match("x"); $1
=> "x"
irb(main):133:0> :$1
SyntaxError: compile error

So it doesn't work when :$1 has a value either. (Which is no surprise, 
because SyntaxErrors are not affected by values of variables AFAIK.)