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Subject:Re: Punctuation names From:Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 17 Nov 1994 15:03:59 CST
|} Aahz (aahz -at- netcom -dot- com) wrote:
|} : Not to pick on Gill, but as a programmer and tech support engineer, it
|} : makes my job much more difficult when people don't use standard names
|} : for punctuation. "()" are parentheses, "{}" are braces, "[]" are
|} : brackets, and "<>" are angle brackets.
|}
|} My favorite terms for these, in order, are "parentheses", "curly braces",
|} "square brackets", and "angle brackets". More syllables, yes, but
|} almost completely unambiguous. (Of course, in documentation, I show
|} what I'm talking about. "Enclose the name of the file in brackets:
|} [foo.c]"
There is an ANSI/CCIT standard for this, but I only know it because
it is referenced in the Usenet ASCII pronunciation guide which is in
turn, reflected in the Jargon File. Whew. Of course the official ANSI/
CCIT for <> is less-than, greater-than, which doesn't take into account
their use as brackets:
#include <stdio.h>
So much for standards.
_______________ _____
/ ___ __/__\ \ / / _\ Steve Fouts
/___ \| | ___\ | / __\ sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
/ / \ | \ / \
/_______/__|_______\_/________\ "She understood, as he did, that all writing
was infernally boring and futile, but that it had to be done out of respect
for tradition" --Stanislaw Lem
