sS replaceStarsWithCountingDollarVars(S s) {
  ret join(replaceCurlyBracedWithStars(javaTokWithAllBrackets_cached(s)));
}

static LS replaceCurlyBracedWithStars(LS tok) {
  int i = 0;
  tok = cloneList(tok);
  for (int i = 1; i < l(tok); i += 2) {
    if (eq(t, "*"))
      tok.set(i, "$" + (++i));
  ret tok;
}