RE: Simple symbol question

["Mike Starr" <writstar -at- wi -dot- net>]

Possibly chiming in late on the thread but I learned that:

    these [ ] are called brackets (not "square brackets)
    these { } are called braces (not "curly brackets")
    these ( ) are called parentheses
    this < is called a "less than" symbol (not an "angle bracket")
    this > is called a "greater than" symbol (not an "angle bracket")

As far as I'm concerned, if they "call" them something else in Australia, I
don't care. I'll call them what they're called in my dictionary. I try my
best to avoid using "greater than" and "less than" symbols as substitutes
for parentheses, brackets or braces. I'm not averse to using them as
command delimiters <see below>.

<gentle tweak>Of course, they do have some strange habits in Oz</gentle
tweak> <grin> (anyone who's been a HATT subscriber recently might recall
some recent threads that took our Aussie friends to task for some of their
strange concepts).

Mike

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-----------------------Original Message-----------------------
>Subject: Re: Simple symbol question
>From: Jean Weber <jean -at- wrevenge -dot- com -dot- au>
>Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 09:40:42 +1000
>X-Message-Number: 10
>
>Peter has made his decision (to call them "angle brackets"), and I'll add 
>another reason to those other people have mentioned:
>
>Many Australians call ( and ) "brackets" rather than "parentheses", so I 
>make sure I say "angle brackets" if it's important to distinguish < and > 
>from other brackets. As others have mentioned, this is definitely a good 
>place to include the symbols as well as the descriptive terms.
>
>As Peter has a UK address, I'm wondering whether Brits call ( and ) 
>parentheses or brackets or something else?
>
>Regards, Jean
>Jean Hollis Weber
>mailto:jean -at- wrevenge -dot- com -dot- au
>The Technical Editors' Eyrie  http://www.wrevenge.com.au/
>
>pkingston -at- nomadsoft -dot- co -dot- uk wrote:
>>Anyone know what these symbols are known as when used as brackets (rather
>>than mathematical symbols)?


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