One thing with $ in a shell prompt - $ is meant to indicate the command should be ran as a normal user, while # indicates the command should be ran as a super user.
Generally, yes. But some guides or tutorials don't respect this convention and use any number of chars including the author's own personal prompt. (I see `>` used often too).
I would always use '>' in README files to indicate the command was to be ran in a command prompt window for Windows users, usually followed with context.
I'm guilty of this, as I have my prompt set to a single > character. I'd be interested to know where the $ as a representation for user input suggestion originated from. I didn't know about # indicating that a command should be run as a superuser
