@echo off

Seen in braindead operating systems, namely MS-DOS batch files, this turns the echo of all commands in a batch file OFF by default, without echoing the command (thus the at sign)

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kaatunut: as for C, you're forgetting that stdio is used for file I/O. Lots of GUI apps use it.

A line that holds almost as much sentimental value to DOS BAT coders as

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

does to perl hackers or

#include <stdio.h>

to C coders in days when GUI meant curses.

Not that I was there. I'm just making this up.

Anyhow, you really shouldn't defame @echo off, BAT was beautiful first programming language to learn and @echo off has almost religious value to people like me. Or had. 'twas like mantra, we didn't even know what the '@' was there for, nobody told us. It just was there.

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tftv256: you are correct, sir. I don't know what I'd been eating.

This wonderful little command saved the DOS BAT gurus from having to put an '@' symbol in front of every line of the script to prevent the line from being displayed. Echo off was always the first line of the BAT script, and therefore had to have an '@' symbol in front of it to stop it from showing up on the screen.

In the days of DOS and cute fuzzy file managers this was the command that determined your level of l33tness. That, and it just made everything look so tidy ...