You have to keep "re-registering" them on every page in order to keep them according to PHP 4 Bible.

However, I set up some routines to automatically re-register a single associative array that holds scalar "session variables". That way it feels more like the ASP approach, which the book admits does sessions better than PHP.

And, the dollar signs, semicolons, case-sensitivity, and braces are still annoying. But it is almost worth the feeling of getting out from under Gates.