what is the triple dollar sign in jquery?

Question

I am trying to debug someone's code, and came across this:

$$$.ajax({
    url: ajax_url + param,
    context: $("#formDialog"),
    success: function(data) {
        this.html(data);
        BindPopupFormEvents(this, title, reload);
    }
}, $$$.ajax.PARTAIL_UPDATE, $mainWrapper);​

We are using the jquery library, but I've never seen a triple dollar sign before and I have no clue what it is... any suggestions?

EDIT

I found this later on:

$$$.fn = $$$.prototype = {
    init: function(jQuery, test) {},
    CONST: CONST
};​

We are only using the jquery library, and we use a single dollar sign in most of the code.

can you explain in plain english what the triple dollar sign is accomplishing, please?

Answer 1

It's just an alias to the jQuery object, just like $. That's all...

In can be done by hand or with jQuery.noConflict()

Examples:

var $$$ = jQuery.noConflict();
var bla = jQuery.noConflict();

Now both $$$ and bla are aliases to the jQuery object.

Many JavaScript libraries use $ as a function or variable name, just as jQuery does. In jQuery's case, $ is just an alias for jQuery, so all functionality is available without using $. If we need to use another JavaScript library alongside jQuery, we can return control of $ back to the other library with a call to $.noConflict():

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Edit to reflect your edit:

Though I see only small portion of the code but $$$.fn = $$$.prototype seems silly as jQuery.fn is an alias to jQuery.prototype...

From the source code:

jQuery.fn = jQuery.prototype