Hello, Paul!
You wrote on 26 Oct 2006 05:06:21 -0700:

PDS And just so there's no confusion for others reading this
PDS thread, I assume you meant to say "parentheses", not
PDS "brackets", correct?

PDS These are parentheses ( )
PDS These are brackets [ ]
PDS These are braces { }

That certainly is common usage but is by no means universal and
accepted! People even use other things as brackets. The theorist
Paul Dirac had a rather useful notation in quantum mechanics
called the braket notation; < was a "bra" and a "ket".

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not