Names for brackets (was: Extension of Tourette's)

Seán Fitzpatrick grendel.jjf at VERIZON.NET
Tue Apr 8 17:21:54 UTC 2008


Until the early '70s, I never had to talk about braces, so I didn't really
know what they were called.  When at that time I heard them called "curly
brackets", it was in a computer science context, and I assumed the name was
CS jargon, where, incidentally, angle brackets are sometimes referred to as
wakas, as in the "geek poem":  < > ! * ("waka waka bang splat", more on
Google).  Come to think of it, the entire poem sounds like a Tourette's
rant.

Seán Fitzpatrick
No oil for pacifists!
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/

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Wilson,

Except for the Hungarian part, I am an old American feller, and I
will have to say that my system is not like Damien's but not like
yours either:

() parentheses
[] brackets (but "square brackets" in phonology)
{} curly brackets (never braces)

"Braces" are for trousers, teeth, walls, etc...

dInIs

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